New heights for Carlow Hockey

Carlow Hockey Club are in a rich vein of form at the moment, with the highlight being the steady trickly of former and current players rising all the way up to international level.

Top of the list of achievements is Amy Handcock, a player who started her hockey journey with Carlow HC before moving to play with her secondary school, Kilkenny College.

Handcock is currently at UCD where her talents were recognised with a call-up to the Ireland team, making her senior international debut in 2025 in a three-match series against the USA.

Handcock impressed the national coaches and was rewarded earlier this year when she was selected to be part of the Ireland squad for the World Cup qualifiers in Chile. The Carlow starlet reached another major milestone in her career when she scored her first senior international goal in those very qualifiers.

At junior level, the club have had two players recently called up to be part of the Ireland U16 set-up - Emma McDonald from Carlow town and Zoe Collier from Raheenwood, both just 15 years old.

McDonald began training with the Irish squad in 2024 and has represented her country twice this year against England in February and most recently in a Five Nations series in Germany over Easter, scoring two goals against Poland.

Collier, meanwhile, earned selection to the Ireland training squad last year after representing Leinster South in the Interprovincial tournament. She performed well during the trials and has maintained her place in the squad.

As well as those internationals, Carlow HC also have six players on the Leinster South U18 Development panel which will form the Leinster Interpro team later this year. 

Three of those players recently travelled with the regional panel to an Easter tournament in the Netherlands, where they finished runner-up.

The club currently has three ladies teams competing across the Leinster leagues. The first team compete in Challenge B League, which is a pathway competition to Leinster Division 1 hockey. They have had a good run of form lately, making it all the way to the semi-finals of their Divisional Shield.

Carlow HC seconds recently won Division 10, earning promotion to Division 9 for next season; and completed the double when they went on to win the Division 9/10 Shield.

The strength in depth at the club is personified by their thirds team, who completed their first competitive season this year, delivering a mid-table finish as well as reaching the quarter-finals of their League Cup.

At junior level, the club fields one 6th-class team, one U14 Minor team and two U16 Inter teams, with the U16 firsts team winning the Leinster Junior Jacqui Potter Plate on St. Patrick’s Day. This is the top junior girls cup competition in Leinster hockey.

2025 saw Carlow HC begin to incorporate boys into the club. What started as Friday night training has grown exponentially in such a short period, with the boys team beginning to participate in boys-only blitzes and going on to play their first full games in friendly fixtures against Laois Hockey Club.

The current season is winding down at time of writing, but plans are in place for weekly social hockey sessions during the summer along with short, four-to-six-week ‘taster sessions’ for those. interested in trying the sport.