The last few weeks has been a busy time for our club and many of our members.
Earlier in July, 5 of our members, Darragh Curley, Fergal Keaveney, Mark English, Rob Devlin and Stephen O’Keeffe played for the Ireland O35s mens team in the European Championships in Valencia. Well done to all involved.

Last week Charlie Trotter was part of the Ireland U16 Boys team who played at the 8 Nations tournament in Utrecht, Netherlands. The team did very well competing against the top European nations including Germany and Netherlands. During the tournament Charlie scored his first goal in a green shirt and is still underage for this level next year.

In Alanya, Türkiye, Toby Slye O’Connell was a key part of the Ireland U18 Boys team who took home the gold medal at the EuroHockey Championship II. After the team lost their first match, they won their remaining 4 games to win the tournament. Like Charlie, Toby was ‘a year young’ for this age group.

The Ireland Senior Womens team are in their final preparations as they get ready for the EuroHockey Nations Championship in Mönchengladbach, Germany (August 8th-17th, all Ireland matches are being televised on RTE). The squad which includes Sarah Hawkshaw (captain), Roisin Upton , Katie Mullan, Niamh Gowing and Niamh and Michelle Carey have had warm up games recently against Czechia and Belgium . Their final prep matches are next week when they play Spain (World Ranked 7th) at Sport Ireland Campus. It is a great opportunity for the hockey community to see top level hockey and support the Ireland team before they travel to Germany.

Tickets available at this link:
https://hockey.ie/event/the-spain-series-sport-ireland-campus/

The Ireland Senior Mens team are competing in Eurohockey Chamionship II from July 27th – August 2nd. Matches will be shown on the TG4 platform on what is an important tournament for the Mens team.

Railway is a proud multi sport club and throughout its history has had lots of links and connections with many sports, athletes and other sports clubs. One of our former hockey players Kimolo Ndee kept this tradition up over the weekend as he played with is childhood football club Leicester Celtic as they played Cork City at Turners Cross in the 4th round of the FAI Cup. Kimolo and his team acquitted themselves well against their full time opponents where they ended up losing 3-0 after a few late goals.

Over the summer (every Tuesday 730pm and Saturday 2pm) club volunteers including Joban Singh and Eoin Brennan have run 2 weekly summer social hockey sessions . These have proved popular as mixed age, mixed gender, mixed ability game play. All are welcome and they will continue into August until pre season starts.

Our younger members have also had many opportunities to play and practise recently with our boys having athletic and technical development sessions during July. All secondary school aged girls have athletic development sessions programmed in during August and notification of these will be sent on Pitchero.

Like any close season there are players joining and departing our club. We would like to give our best wishes to a few players in particular who will be playing with other clubs for the 2025/2026 season. Both Sarah Hawkshaw and Roisin Upton are joining one of the top clubs in Belgium , Braxgata HC , where they will play alongside Niamh and Michelle Carey . To play hockey professionally on a full time basis in Belgium is a brilliant opportunity and we wish Sarah and Roisin the best. This development will also help the Ireland Senior Womens programme as more players are exposed to a high standard of hockey on a daily and weekly basis in one of the Worlds best hockey leagues. Another player who will be playing elsewhere next season is Toby Slye O’Connell who will be playing in the EY1 league to help further his hockey career. Toby has been a brilliant ambassador and role model on and off the pitch for our club since he started playing with us at a young age. He departs with our full support and we look forward to seeing him continuing to progress and to the day he dons the green and yellow colours again!

Our first club social event of the season takes place in Railway on Friday August 22nd at 6.30pm. it is a Bowls and BBQ evening and places are filling up fast so please register via the Pitchero link as spaces are limited.

https://www.railwayunionhockey.ie/payments/lawns-bowls-and-bbq-136270.html

Over the school summer holidays our midweek camps and clinics continue. Registration here:
https://www.railwayunionhockey.ie/payments/lawns-bowls-and-bbq-136270.html

After a successful crowdfunding campaign that received the fantastic support of nearly 100 of our supporters we have placed the order for our 5 a side hockey boards and indoor hockey boards. This equipment will arrive in August and all members will be able to play and the 5s boards in particular will help player development and engagement.

Dates for your diary are:
Mens pre season begins on Tuesday August 12th. Womens pre season begins on Monday August 18th. All our teams womens, mens , boys, girls and vets are welcoming new players of all ages. If interested please email
comejoinrailway@gmail.com