Latest news with #IrishSeniorCup
Belfast Telegraph
4 days ago
- Sport
- Belfast Telegraph
Pegasus appoint Scotland Head Coach as Director of Hockey: ‘This is a ground breaking moment'
The new Director of Hockey role will oversee player development pathways and coaching structures across the club. 'We are thrilled to welcome Jonny Caren to Pegasus,' said incoming Pegasus Club President, Arlene Boyles. 'This is a historic moment not just for our Club but for women's hockey in Ireland. Jonny's vision for the future of hockey aligns perfectly with the Club's ambitions. 'This is a ground breaking moment for Pegasus – we are not just bringing in a new coach; we are bringing in a leader who will shape the future of our Club at every level from the grassroots to the highest level. 'Jonny's arrival coincides with the appointment of Dr Shirley McCay MBE OLY as Pegasus Club Captain so this is a really exciting time for our club.' Caren added: 'It's a great honour to join a club with such a rich tradition and passionate community. Pegasus has always been a benchmark in Irish hockey and I look forward to the opportunity to shape a holistic hockey programme and to support the Club's players and coaches across all stages of development.' Founded in 1961, Pegasus are three times Irish Hockey League champions and 14-times Irish Senior Cup winners.
Irish Independent
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Independent
‘Bit humbling going from the Olympics to being the very worst player on a team that has 14-year-old girls on it'
Water polo might not be the most common answer to the 'what-the-Olympian-did-next' trope, but for Riordan, it was the right antidote to help her immediate post-swimming life. She went to her first water polo training session at the National Aquatic Centre in Abbotstown with her new club, St Vincent's Water Polo Club, just a month after the Paris Olympics. Two weeks ago, she helped them win the Irish Senior Cup in Limerick. 'A bit humbling at the beginning going from the Olympics to being the very worst [player] on a team that has 14-year-old girls on it,' Riordan smiles. 'At the moment, I'm in the mind space of 'I want to enjoy' sports, first and foremost, to be doing it because I want to be there. The Olympics were a heavy mental and emotional toll on me. I wanted a break from that.' Co-existing with intense change has been part of Riordan's story over the past year. After the Irish women's 4x100m freestyle relay initially missed out on qualifying for Paris by one spot, Riordan retired from the sport at age 24. The twist came when Japan withdrew from the event in June, which meant Ireland got back in through the ranking system. Riordan had to unretire herself and had just a month to prepare for her first Olympics. The breaking of an Olympic dream and the scramble to put it back together in such a short time left rough edges. 'The few months leading up to Paris were probably the most emotionally strained I've been in my life,' Riordan said. 'I think I'd already grieved, grieved the loss. I had decided, 'OK, it's not happening for me, I'm not going to the Olympics'. And then, two weeks later, it was, 'Get back to Dublin, you might be going'. It took a big toll on the mind more than the body. 'I think I kind of had a sour taste in my mouth from swimming after, even though I had this amazing experience and I'll never forget that. I didn't even want to do the swim sessions with the water polo team. I managed to force myself to do it.' The intensity only escalated when she got to Paris. The relay team came 16th overall in their heats on the official opening day, but then she tested positive for Covid afterwards and had to leave the village immediately. The five-ringed experience didn't hit the peak she imagined. 'You do build it up in your head a little bit and then you get there and you're like, oh my goodness the food is not nice, the hotel is not nice. I got Covid when I was over there. I was not well when I raced. I tested negative before I raced and tested positive after, so I got sent home immediately. 'You walk out and you're like, this is it, this is the moment. And then you're also like, oh this is it. Two edges of a sword, I guess.' Her new sport brings her into contact with her old home. The first time she walked into the National Aquatic Centre to go water polo training, she felt a shudder, 'post-traumatic stress disorder from all the training' from her swimming days. While there was an element of a team when she competed in the relays for Ireland, it's not the same as competing in an actual team like water polo (a physical sport described as a combination of swimming, basketball and wrestling). 'In Paris, we were all really good friends, we were all doing the same event, but we were also all competing to get onto the relay. You're there for each other, but you're also, 'I want to beat her'. It's a hugely different dynamic. Whereas in water polo, it's like everybody is taking a share of the pressure, it's not one person's fault, it's the team. That's something I've never experienced before and it's been so refreshing to be a part of that. 'I didn't realise how physical the sport was. People are wrestling each other in the water, but it's almost refreshing to see that in a women's sport because that's not how we're meant to behave I guess, but it is very physical, very aggressive. 'It's different, even learning tactics and stuff, I've never really done anything like that, just swim in a straight line and hope for the best.' Post-Paris, Riordan has started working as a documentation specialist with a pharmaceutical company in Grange Castle, Dublin. She's also training for the marathon in Lisbon in October. 'Something I always knew coming out of swimming is that I can't just stop activity altogether. I think I get quite down if I do. So I picked up all these sports, I'm just trying everything out. Before I used to work my life around my sport, whereas now I'm working sport around my life. It's a different dynamic for me.'
Irish Independent
12-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Independent
‘We've done the double!' – Dublin water polo club win Irish cup double
The women's team played out a nail-biting final against Galway's Tribes at the university pool in Limerick on Saturday. After an intense battle, nothing could separate the two teams, with the All-Ireland decider ending in a 10-10 draw. Tribes led for most of the match, but St Vincent's stayed in the game, edging ahead 10-9 in the final two minutes. However, Tribes were awarded a penalty in the dying moments and levelled the score. Both teams used their timeouts, but neither could find the winner, and the match went to penalties. St Vincent's edged the shootout 3-2, with Zoe O'Brien saving the final penalty, sealing the Irish Senior Cup title for her team. It was a heart-breaking outcome for a Tribes side making their first senior cup final appearance. The result means St Vincent's complete their own double, having also defeated Tribes on penalties in last week's league final. Clíona Colvin captained the senior team and was named in the Ladies Team of the Tournament alongside Ciara Williams and Aoife Hennessy. Meanwhile, St Vincent's faced another Galway side, Corrib, in the men's Senior Cup final, leading from start to finish, closing out the match 14-9. This marks the third consecutive Irish Senior Cup win for St Vincent's. Announcing the wins on social media, the club gave a 'big thanks' to all the players, coaches, and team managers who worked 'so hard all season' and showed incredible dedication to the club. Both senior teams are now Division One League and Irish Senior Cup champions for the season.
Irish Times
10-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Railway Union retain Irish Senior Cup with 2-1 victory over Loreto
A week after becoming the first club to win the Champions Trophy two years on the trot by beating Loreto in Banbridge, Railway Union rounded off an exceptional season by getting the better of the same opposition to retain the AIG Irish Senior Cup at Belfield on Saturday. A 10th-minute goal from Sarah Patton and a Róisín Upton penalty stroke three minutes from time sealed the win for Railway, Loreto getting a late, late consolation score through Nicola Torrans. As they have done all season, Railway's defence and their goalkeeper Emma Maloney excelled, Loreto racking up 15 penalty corners in the game but failing to get any joy from them until it was too late. A Patton sister act opened the scoring, Sarah turning home Orla's cross from the right in the first quarter, but it wasn't until the dying moments that they added their second when Upton sent her stroke high to Liz Murphy's right after Sarah Patton had been fouled in the circle. READ MORE Loreto, seeking their first success in the completion in 15 years, finally got a return from their penalty corner count when Torrans scored from a rebound, but by then the hooter had sounded and Railway's job was done. It's the second season in a row that Railway, coached by Una McCarthy, and Loreto have won all three major domestic honours between them, the latter having retained their Hockey League title last month.
RTÉ News
10-05-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
St Vincent's ladies win Irish water polo cup on penalties
The Irish ladies senior water polo cup final turned into a nail-biter which had to be won and lost in the cruellest way this evening. It took penalties to decide the game - the All-Ireland final in water polo - as nothing separated Galway's Tribes and Dublin's St Vincents for a gruelling hour in the university pool in Limerick. Tribes led the game all the way, but Vincents ladies kept after them and went a goal ahead in the final two minutes to lead 10-9. Tribes came back after they were awarded a penalty in the last minute and although both teams called time outs with 12 seconds and one second to go respectively, neither could get the winning goal and it ended 10-10. St Vincent's ladies then won the cup on penalties, 3-2, a particularly cruel blow for a skilful and brave Tribes team in their first ever senior cup final, but either team could have been national champions. St Vincents also beat them last week on penalties in the league decider and are now league and cup champions Laura Casserly from Tribes was named most valuable player of the tournament. Erin Riordan, who swam for Ireland in last year's Olympic Games in Paris, only took up the sport when she retired in September and has won her first Irish Senior Cup medal with St Vincent's at her first attempt.
