{"id":347728,"date":"2026-03-15T16:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T16:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/347728\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T16:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T16:16:08","slug":"roscommons-fiona-tully-and-westmeaths-robbie-mccarthy-claim-all-ireland-senior-handball-titles-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/347728\/","title":{"rendered":"Roscommon\u2019s Fiona Tully and Westmeath\u2019s Robbie McCarthy claim All-Ireland Senior Handball titles \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roscommon<\/a>\u2019s Fiona Tully\u2019s path to the top wasn\u2019t easy but her persistence was rewarded with an outstanding victory over Galway<\/a>\u2019s world champion Ciana N\u00ed Churraoin in the All-Ireland Senior Singles final at Croke Park.<\/p>\n

After falling short in several major finals in recent years, the former Roscommon footballer took her chance on the big stage, overcoming the favourite on a scoreline of 21-17, 21-14.<\/p>\n

In the men\u2019s final, Westmeath<\/a>\u2019s Robbie McCarthy produced a superb performance to defeat Clare<\/a>\u2019s Diarmaid Nash 21-19, 21-7 in claiming his eighth senior crown.<\/p>\n

Both Tully and N\u00ed Churraoin appeared tense in the early exchanges but the St Coman\u2019s player found her rhythm at crucial stages, including a blistering spell in the second game when she rattled off three successive ace serves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if I thought it was ever going to happen,\u201d said Tully. \u201cI\u2019m delighted, finally getting over the line in a big final.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty delighted with how I figured out the game today and happy with how I played.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tully\u2019s victory also saw the Women\u2019s Senior Singles title return to the famous St Coman\u2019s club in Roscommon Town for the first time after what was the first ever all-Connacht women\u2019s decider.<\/p>\n

\"RobbieRobbie McCarthy during the All-Ireland Men’s Singles final against Diarmaid Nash. Photograph: Stephen Marken <\/p>\n

McCarthy, meanwhile, had hinted at retirement after the Senior Softball Singles final last August but ultimately decided to continue, looking sharp as ever in this display.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say there\u2019s a lot of people raging I did come back, but it\u2019s their fault. A couple of people brought me back to be honest and I just want to say thanks to them people, they know who they are,\u201d said McCarthy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels great to be back and pick up another one. I\u2019m just playing for fun now, no pressure, I\u2019m just enjoying myself and it seems to be working. I really appreciate everything everyone did for me this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to say whether I will or whether I won\u2019t (continue to play) because I made that mistake already.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just going to play and enjoy myself and if I feel like I\u2019m able to compete and stick with the younger lads, I\u2019m happy. Just enjoying myself and still being around the game is really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roscommon\u2019s Fiona Tully\u2019s path to the top wasn\u2019t easy but her persistence was rewarded with an outstanding victory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[30041,30883,61,60,43,90225,74467],"class_list":["post-347728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-clare-gaa","tag-galway-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-roscommon-gaa","tag-westmeath-gaa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}