Kilkenny ready to welcome the world for four-wall handball championships

The eyes of the handballing world will be on Kilkenny later this year.

Plans are in full swing for the 2024 World Four-Wall Handball Championships, which were launched in UPMC Nowlan Park recently.

The championships, sponsored by O’Neill’s, will run from October 26 to November 3, in Kilkenny as well as at venues in Dublin, Carlow and Laois. The competition will also be screened live by TG4 Sport.

The World Handball Championships are a triennial event, held traditionally in rotation by Ireland, the United States and Canada, with Australia also hosting the 1988 event. Ireland was due to host the 2021 World Championships but this was postponed due to pandemic-related restrictions.

This year the World Championships coincide with the centenary year of the GAA Handball Association.

More locations than ever will have the opportunity to host some of the much-anticipated action. For the first time, this year’s competition will be divided into two separate events with the Wallball Championships being held in August at the University of Limerick, followed by the Four-Wall Championships locally.

Speaking at Wednesday’s launch, President of GAA Handball, Conor McDonnell thanked members from each of the counties for such a ‘brilliant bid’.

Mr McDonnell said there was ‘lots of work to be done’ in the coming months but he has every faith in the clubs and communities involved.

The current president of the association went on to hail handball’s ‘fantastic advantages for health and wellbeing’, adding, ‘there’s a competition for everybody, from under-12 to under-70’.

“Mark my words, this is going to be a fabulous event,” he concluded.

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“It’s a hugely significant and important year for us,” said Head of GAA Handball David Britton, “so to be able to mark that with two world championships, we couldn’t have asked for a better platform to push the sport forward. The sport is buzzing at the moment, we’re seeing through every measurable metric an increase (in participation) and the general feedback and buzz is back in handball and we’ll use these tournaments to push it on and hopefully grow and develop even more.”

Chairperson of Kilkenny Michael O’Shea led the county’s support of the championships.

“Kilkenny handball is always well supported by the GAA going back over the years,” he said. “It’s exciting. They’ll be 1,000 entries at least and they’ll have travelling parties with them that’ll be a huge boost for the local economy.”

Chairperson of Kilkenny GAA, PJ Kenny told those gathered of his excitement for the championships and offered the county board’s assistance if required over the coming months.