Aoife McCarthy bids for further World Handball success

Paul Fitzpatrick

Mullingar handball star Aoife McCarthy will be hoping to add another world title to her collection when she represents Ireland at the World Wallball Championships in New York next week.

The 33-year-old, who comes from one of the country’s best-known handball families, came through the recent Irish trials alongside Limerick left-hander Martina McMahon to secure their places on Team Ireland for the Women’s Open Doubles grade.

The official Irish squad fly to New York this Friday, with competition getting under way on Monday. Matches will be played at venues including Coney Island and St John’s Recreation Center in Brooklyn, with the finals taking place in Central Park.

The setting is an appropriate one for a World Wallball Championships. New York is regarded as the spiritual home of one-wall handball, the version of the game now known internationally as wallball, and McCarthy is relishing the opportunity to compete there in Irish colours.

She will do so alongside a familiar partner. McCarthy and McMahon combined to win the World 4-Wall Doubles title when the World Championships were held at Croke Park in 2024.

More recently, the pair were on opposite sides of the court when McCarthy reached the All-Ireland Senior Singles final, where she was beaten by the Broadford woman.

Handball has always been part of life for McCarthy. Her family played a central role in the establishment of the club in the Springfield area of Mullingar in 1998, with her father Robert and brother Robert Jr, one of the greats of the game, among those who have driven the sport locally.

“We were very involved in the set-up of the new club. In 1998, our club was formed in the Springfield area and my brother and my father have been at the forefront of that along with other club members,” McCarthy explained.

“There’s a fantastic history in our club, more so with Robert Jr and Dad. But we just try to keep it going, keep the sport alive and just embrace it.”

McCarthy is modest about her own contribution to that history, despite a career which includes major doubles honours as well as appearances at the very highest level in singles.

“I’ve probably a few doubles medals and then, I suppose, runner-up medals in singles. Senior singles is actually nothing to be sniffed at really, but I just enjoy playing the game.

“I think as you move on in life, you put handball into perspective and I’m just really enjoying the game at the moment and just taking every day as I can. I’m just playing as long as I can and enjoying it.”

It has already been a memorable sporting year for Westmeath and McCarthy would love to add another success to the county’s 2026 story.

“The men’s footballers were brilliant, the ladies footballers did fantastic as well. They were both celebrating on stage that night and then Robert did fantastic as well (winning the 4-Wall and Softball Senior crowns).

“So, yeah, it’d be nice to bring something back to Westmeath from the Worlds in New York if we can.”

McCarthy will also carry a little piece of home with her in New York, with the Westmeath colours incorporated into her Team Ireland jersey.

“Absolutely. It’s great and it’s very personal,” she said.

“I’m so proud to represent the county and represent Ireland when we go to New York.”

With McCarthy and McMahon already proven on the world stage as a doubles partnership, they will travel with genuine ambitions of challenging for the title when the action begins next week. There are a dozen pairs in the Open grade, with a number of very strong American sides.