In attendance is GAA Handball President Conor McDonnell with, from left, Niamh Heffernan of Galway, Martina McMahon of Limerick, Fiona Tully of Roscommon and Ciana Ní Churraoin of Galway at the 2025 oneills.com 4-Wall Men's & Ladies' Senior Singles All Ireland Championship Launch at the National Handball Centre in Croke Park, Dublin. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile.
By Paul Fitzpatrick
By Sunday evening, the oneills.com All-Ireland Senior Singles in the Men’s and Ladies’ grades will be down to the semi-finals, with a bumper weekend of action in store.
In the Men’s grade, the round of 16 matches take place on Friday and Saturday at regional venues with the four quarter-finals scheduled for Sunday at the National Handball Centre, Croke Park.
Also on the card at HQ on Sunday are the four oneills.com Ladies Senior Singles quarter-finals.
In an all-Munster clash, former champion Diarmaid Nash of Clare takes on Tipperary's Ger Coonan on Friday at Sportslink, Dublin with world champion Paul Brady travelling to Collooney, Co Sligo to take on local young gun Cormac Finn at the same time in what will be a major event for the progressive Sligo club.
On Saturday in Shannon, Co Clare, no 1-ranked Corkman David Walsh plays former U21 All-Ireland champion Rory Grace from Tipperary in the first game of a double-header, Kerry veteran Dominic Lynch facing Kildare's Kevin Diggins in a battle of the lefties on the same programme.
Mallow man Walsh made brilliant progress in 2024 and has now claimed the number one ranking for the first time, on the back of winning both the Golden Gloves in Belfast and the Southern Classic in his home county.
Walsh is no longer under the radar but that won’t change his approach, he said.
“Kind of but not really to be honest. I still take every game as it comes. Last year was just my first Senior Championship as a senior player so it was a quick turnaround from that championship to the World Championships and going on to the Golden Gloves and the Southern Classic and to be here now.
“I know the quality that is in the field, they still have loads and loads of senior titles between them. It’s still a really, really tough tournament to win so I’ll just be focusing on every shot as it comes and taking it from there.”
David Walsh of Cork and Paul Brady of Cavan in attendance at the 2025 oneills.com 4-Wall Men's & Ladies' Senior Singles All Ireland Championship Launch at the National Handball Centre in Croke Park, Dublin. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile.
A statement win over Robbie McCarthy in the quarter-final of the World Championships in an 11-9 tiebreaker helped propel Walsh into the conversation and while he has won two tournaments since, that remains a special moment, despite his subsequent semi-final loss to Nash.
“Maybe because of the magnitude of the tournament, being a World Championships, but I suppose when I look back at it, I didn’t push on from that game, I would have liked to have pushed on in that tournament but I’ll learn from the experience I’m sure and it will help me going forward but yeah, that was definitely a career highlight.”
At Roscommon, Michael Hedigan of Cork takes on Monaghan's Gavin Coyle. Defending champion Robbie McCarthy of Westmeath will meet former two-time Minor champion Eoghan McGinnity from Monaghan at Leixlip (Saturday, 12pm) while in a double-header at Culohill, Co Laois (11am start), Cork's Daniel Relihan will take on Meath's Gary McConnell and Kilkenny's recently-crowned Senior Doubles champion Peter Funchion is pitted against Kildare citeog Niall O'Connor.
In the Ladies Senior Singles, former world champion Martina McMahon of Limerick meets Clare's Caitriona Millane and two rising stars in Kildare's Mollie Dagg and Kilkenny's Amy Brennan clash.
Meanwhile, the other two intriguing ties are the meetings of Roscommon's Fiona Tully and Tyrone's Eilise McCrory and Galway doubles partners Niamh Heffernan and world champion Ciana Ní Churraoin.
The pair have won the last two Senior Doubles All-Ireland titles in tandem but have also begun to meet in major singles tournaments; Ní Churraoin won when they played in the World Championships and Heffernan turned the tables in the following event, the Golden Gloves in Belfast.
“2025 so far has been really, really good for me, I have upped my training. Ciana is definitely world champion for a reason but I’m hoping to play the same as I did in the Golden Gloves and hopefully get the win,” Claregalway’s Heffernan, a former county camogie player, said.
“I’m not playing camogie at the moment but I do a lot of running and a lot of gym work and I’m very lucky that my school, Coláiste Bhaile Chláir, has a fully-equipped gym so I have the privilege of training there every day really.
“I have nearly a fear of losing and that gives me so much motivation, every game I go into I’m just rearing to go and I just want to win every single time.”