In a hectic spell for the sport in the capital, seven Leinster titles were won, a new website was launched in Parnell Park and Dublin's Juvenile handball players made huge strides writes Michael McGee. Since the Dublin AGM which took place in early January, there have been a number of notable achievements in Dublin handball circles. Co. Secretary Frank Semple has assembled a formidable team behind him with a number of sub-committees doing excellent work. Semple, who was previously the Secretary of the Wicklow Handball Board and a former Chairman of the Leinster Development Council, has put this experience to great effect in Dublin handball circles. Kevin McKenna as Chairman uses his calming influence and he is very knowledgeable in his approach to the post as Chairman. It is Semple who has united all the committees and is constantly encouraging them to deliver new initiatives for the benefit of Dublin handball. Just twenty one days into the New Year Eoin Kennedy won Dublin's first Leinster title of 2007 in the senior singles beating Michael Gregan of Wicklow 21-8, 21-7. The Collegiates took place in Kingscourt and there were wins for Sinead Gallogly DCU in the Ladies B, Paul Moran DIT in the Men's A final. David Smith of DCU had a cracking win over Shane Hayes of NUIG by 14-15, 15-14, and 11-10. Shortly afterwards the U.S. Collegiates took place in Los Angeles and an 18 strong DIT team lead by Padraig Gaffney travelled over. Brian Carroll reached the final and was just narrowly beaten by Luis Moreno 19-21, 21-18, 11-8 in an outstanding decider. Emer Ui Falluin was runner up to Maria Daly of UL in the Ladies final while Emer Coyle and Aifric Naughton of DIT had to settle for silver against Lyndsey Ross and Aimee Ulbert from Lake Forest College. DCU won the Junior B team league final in dramatic fashion over DIT. With his team behind by five points going into the last singles, DCU's Dan Leahy proved to be the hero playing great handball to win the title by just three points (84- 81) in the end over DIT. The winning DCU team were Steve Marken, David Smity, Charlie Nolan, Dan Leahy, Sinead Gallogly and Oisin Walsh. Na Fianna claimed their fourth Senior team league title in five years with a great win over Naomh Padraig. Christy Donnelly, Frank Daly, Egin Jensen, Adrian Benson, Ian Griffin and John Molloy were the heroes for the Na Fianna team Dublin win seven Leinster 40 x 20 titles Paddy Murray, affectionately known as the Prince of Portobello, won his fifth Leinster medal defeating Peter McTiernan of Na Fianna in an all Dublin final 21-5, 21-4. Fergal O'Riain (Masters B singles) and Eugene Kennedy (Emerald Masters A singles) both won Leinster titles the same evening in Ballymore Eustace. Dublin appeared in three more finals on Tuesday 6th March last. John Ward and Seamus Ahern pushed Kilkenny's Johnny Brennan and Joe Hennessy all the way before going down 16-21, 21-16, 21-14. In the Ruby Masters Mick O' Brien & Sylvie O'Dowd travelled to Leixlip to take on Kildare's Willie Doran and Declan Quigley. O'Dowd at 74 and a sprightly O'Brien at 66 gave inspirational performances before narrowly going down to the Lilywhites. Both will be strong contenders in the Leinster 60 x 30 championships. It was left up to Aine Gorman to end the evening on a high note and this she did. Gorman, who was runner up in last year's decider, made sure this time around defeating Laois's Ciara Dowling 21-11 21-12. It was Gorman's first Leinster title and fully deserved. John Molloy and his doubles partner Ned Flynn met in the final of the Diamond Masters. In a close and entertaining first game Molloy's greater fitness and hunger was the difference winning 21-14. In the second Molloy, with a huge 17-1 lead eventually got home 21-10 to win his sixth Leinster title and put back to back Leinster titles together in this grade. Paddy Murray and John Barton won the Emerald Masters B Doubles to bring Dublin Leinster handball haul to seven in the 40 x 20 championships. Eoin Kennedy played extremely well to reach the final of the Ulster Open. Kennedy defeated Irish, U.S. and World Champion Cavan's Paul Brady by 18-21, 21-11, 11-6 in the semi-finals. However Kennedy couldn't carve out another gigantic win as Cork's Tony Healy played the game of his life winning 21-14, 21-3 in the final. Kilkenny hosted the FBD Nationals and yet again Kennedy faced Tony Healy. Paul Brady was forced out due to injury the week before after playing for the Cavan Senior football team against Sligo. Healy took full advantage and Kennedy had to settle for silver at the hands of Healy again. At the time of writing Eoin Kennedy had reached the All-Ireland senior singles 40 x 20 final. In the All-Ireland championships semi-finals Eugene Kennedy, already the holder of 20 All-Ireland titles in Masters, Silver and Golden Masters, reached the final with a good win over Martin Cronin of Mayo while Paddy Murray from Portobello defeated Galway's Sean Finnegan by 21-9, 21-12. The finals are fixed for mid April with more handball titles look likely to be making their way to the capital Historic opening of St. Michan's handball court in Green Street St Michan's Park handball court on Green St. was officially declared open on March 5th last by Lord Mayor Vincent Jackman. This historic site near the markets area envelops Green St. Debtors Prison (1794) and Green St. Court House (1797), where in 1803 the trial of Robert Emmet took place and the trials of Wolfe Tone were also held here. Newgate Gaol (1780-1893), where the death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald occurred in 1798 and Halston St. Church (1811) are also there. The foundation walls of the Newgate gaol now form the boundary of the park. Two victims of Bloody Sunday in Croke Park 1920 had addresses here, James Teehan of 5 Green Street and William Robinson of 15 Little Britain Street. The City Council in their wisdom have maintained this classic (20 feet x 52 feet) alley with a state of the art back wall constructed of stainless steel pillars and a transparent material 250 times stronger than glass. This enables easy viewing of the activities inside, is great news for the security concerns of guardians and also operates as a public park amenity. The park has a great handball history where the great brothers Larry and Gerry Rowe won Senior All Ireland Doubles in 1946 and 1948. Larry won Senior Singles titles in 1938, 1947, 1949 and 1951. Paddy Monroe and Mick Fahey won an All Ireland Junior Doubles in 1953. Niall McKenna and Enda Timoney to make handball history Dublin's Juveniles are beginning to make inroads at underage level. Both Naoise and Dianaimh Greene reached Leinster Colleges finals. Dublin travelled to Ballymore Eustace in early March for the first round of the Leinster Juvenile 40 x 20 championships to take on the Kilkenny cats. Only Niall McKenna and Conor Timoney got over the first hurdle. Despite the loss there were great performances from Joseph Varley in the Boys U-12 singles, Pierce Caulfield and Cian O'Dalaigh in the Boys U-13 Doubles while Siobhan Cahill and Eleanor Buggy in the Girls U-13 Doubles almost pulled off a famous win, just narrowing losing in the tie breaker. It has to be said there is huge work going on behind the scenes in Juvenile coaching in clubs with the likes of Frank Daly, Christy Donnelly, Pat Ryan, Joe Varley, Frank Prendergast, Kevin McKenna and Enda Timoney doing exceptional work. The Dublin juveniles setup has come a long way where they can now compete with the best around and it will only be a matter off time before Dublin does make the break through. At the time of writing Dublin's Juvenile handball stars Niall McKenna and Enda Timoney had reached the Leinster Juvenile championships Boys U-14 final and were aiming to become the first Juvenile doubles pairs to win a doubles title since George Ryan and Kevin Doyle won it back in 1990. Dublin Handball website is launched in Parnell Park Just prior to the Dublin v Cork league match in Parnell Park the county's handball website was officially launched by Gerry Harrington Chairman Dublin G.A.A. Board, Danny O'Connor Vice Chairman along with Frank Semple Dublin Handball Secretary. Aine Gorman and Ciaran O'Sullivan deserve great praise for getting the project off the ground and already their hard work is paying dividends as the new website is one of the best in the country. The website address is http://dublinhandball.gaa.ie . After just four days the website had over 1,200 hits. On the public relations side of things Michael McGee P.R.O. keeps the website up-to-date and writes for both the Evening Herald and Fingal Independent. On Wednesday evenings well known Dublin G.A.A. Journalist Mick Hanley from Dublin radio station Anna Livia FM 103.2 interviews the P.R.O. on all matters relating to Dublin Handball. It is hoped that in the next 12 months there will be a sponsor for Dublin handball. Tweet

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