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Slam success for Aoife at Spa handball event

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by Con Dennehy

Killarney handball star Aoife Walsh was celebrating at the weekend following her phenomenal success at the inaugural the Spa 1 Wall Slam competition.

The tournament, played at the Spa GAA facility on Saturday, attracted players from Kerry, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Mayo, Roscommon, Galway and Dublin. However, pride of place on the honours list was reserved for Walsh, a member of the Spa Killarney Handball Club.

Having advanced to the finals of the Ladies B competition, she outclassed her opponent, Bríd Horgan (Cork), with a polished display to win the prestigious title on a 21-16 scoreline. The victory establishes Walsh as one of the most promising young players in the county.

Also a winner at the ‘She’s Ace’ tournament in Northern Ireland earlier this year, Walsh can now look forward to an exciting handball season.

“The Spa 1 Wall Slam was an outstanding success,” said Eoin O’Donoghue, Tournament Director and PRO of the Spa/Killarney Handball Club. “We hosted 60 games during the day with the standard of handball at a very high level. There were plate and cup competitions for five grades including Men’s B, Men’s C, Ladies B, Ladies C and Masters 45 plus.”

While the majority of the other titles were won by players from outside Kerry, there was joy for Tommy Quirke (Glenbeigh) in the Men’s B Plate final and for Róisín King (Glenbeigh) in the Ladies C Plate final.

In the Men’s B final, John Joe Quirke (Glenbeigh) lost to Anthony Fitzgerald (Waterford) 21-17; John Coggeran (Roscommon) defeated Kieran O’Brien (Killarney) 21-15 in the Masters final; and in the Ladies C final Barbara Hanley (Galway) defeated Sara Dineen (Killarney) 21-16.

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Kerry’s All-Ireland heroes launch new football camp for girls

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Legendary Kerry ladies’ player Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh will be inspiring the next generation of superstars at the new Laochra football camp, which takes place in Killarney in August.

Aimed at girls aged 12 to 16, the camp is being run by three leaders who were central to Kerry’s magnificent All-Ireland triumph in 2024: Darragh Long (joint manager), Declan Quill (joint manager) and Anna Maria O’Donoghue (selector).

Camp ambassador Louise will be on hand to offer guidance in a coaching capacity, as will some members of the current Kerry team.

“We want you to train with your heroes so you can be the next hero,” explains Darragh Long.

“We feel very strongly about ladies’ football. It has been brilliant to myself and Declan over the last five or six years, and it has been brilliant to Anna Maria and Louise over their full careers, so we just see it as an opportunity to give something back to a sport that gave an awful lot to us.

“We’re aiming at an age group of 12 to 16, girls who will hopefully be starting on their intercounty journey. We will be able to give them a skillset they will be able to use as their steps to success. To try and be the next Louise or the next Síofra O’Shea.

“We have three workshops planned. One with Eric McDonnell, who was our strength and conditioning coach when we won the All-Ireland. One with Michelle O’Connor, an All-Ireland winning performance coach. And one with Claire O’Sullivan, our nutritionist when we won the All-Ireland.

“It’s all about giving the girls the skills and the bits and pieces they’ll need if they want to make it to the top. We really think we can give them a good grounding. We’ll also be providing a huge amount of coaching throughout the week.”

Many teenage girls give up on sport around the ages of 15 or 16. Long and his fellow camp founders are hopeful that attending Laochra might encourage girls to stick with it that bit longer.

“We would see it as a huge success if 10, 15, or 20 of the girls who come to the camp continue to play football after the camp because they got a bit of a buzz or a bit of energy from us during the week.”

The Laochra camp will run from August 12-15 at Dr Crokes GAA grounds in Killarney. You can register here.

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St Paul’s sign 6ft American guard Burnham

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Having really found their feet in the Women’s Super League in the second half of the season, culminating in a drive to the final, Utility Trust St Paul’s have signalled their intent to push on for the 2025/26 season by announcing the signing of American guard Maisie Burnham.

Burnham (24) comes to Killarney following an honour-laden time in the Liberty High School where she also excelled at volleyball. She went to the Eastern Washington University where she led the team in scoring in the 2020/21 season with over 14 points per game – the highest PPG ever for an EWU freshman.

She moved onto the University of Portland where she really found her feet with the team and as her time progressed with the Pilots her stats went north, peaking in the 2024/2025 season when she averaged 16.3 points per game.

Maisie, a guard and standing at 6ft, is a native of Spangle City in Washington and the club will welcome her to the Kingdom in plenty of time ahead of the new season.

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