Kilkenny, Carlow, Laois, IRE, WPH Press, 11/30/25
GAA Handball proudly presented the 2025 4-Wall Adult Irish Nationals on the last weekend in November, featuring more than 200 players across 12 venues during the event.
Ladies Open Singles
Fiona Tully entered the 2025 4-Wall Adult Irish Nationals as the top seed and dominated the upper bracket, outscoring her two opponents on her way to the final by a combined score of 60-9.
Eilise McCrory entered 2025 4-Wall Adult Irish Nationals as the second seed and defeated WR48 #1 Niamh Heffernan for the second time in one week in a tiebreaker to meet Tully in the final.
Tully and McCrory had played for many Irish junior championships and would play for their first Senior title on Sunday at the 2025 4-Wall Adult Irish Nationals.
Tully built a comfortable lead in the first game of the final, leading 10-6 on the strength of a number of left-handed kills. Trailing 10-12, McCrory continued to chip away at Tully’s advantage, hitting two well-time ace serves. The ladies would eventually stand even at 14-all with Tully serving. Tully attempted a deep-court left-handed back wall kill to win the first game but came up just short, opening the door for McCrory to win the game in the next inning.
Tully quickly evened the match with a nearly flawless second game.
The tension was high in the third, with both ladies aiming for her first 4-Wall Adult Irish Nationals title. Tied at five, Tully lifted her game to another level, striking several first strike errors, retrieving a number of McCrory drives, and scoring the final six points of the match to hoist her maiden Irish Nationals title.
“I just want to say thanks to Kilkenny for hosting the Nationals,” Tully would say in her trophy acceptance speech. “To come here and win my first title here after winning the 15-and-under here is really cool. I want to thank everyone who has helped me along the way. Me and Eilise go way back, it’s never going to be an easy game. To win is always going to be a hard one against her.”
Semifinals
Tully def C. Millane 15-3, 15-3, McCrory def N. Heffernan 13-15, 15-2, 11-9
Final: Tully def McCrory 14-15, 15-5, 11-5
Ladies Open draw HERE
Men’s Open Singles
Top-seeded and former GAA #1 David Walsh narrowly escaped an upset in his opening match at the 2025 4-Wall Adult Irish Nationals, dropping the first game and standing just two points from elimination in the second game against Kyle Jordan. Walsh would need another tiebreaker in his quarterfinal clash with Niall O’Connor before a straightforward, two-game sweep against Dominic Lynch in the semifinals.
Third-seeded Peter Funchion was dominant in the bottom bracket, cruising to the final without dropping a game, including a two-game sweep against second-seeded Daniel Relihan in the bottom bracket semifinals.
Funchion stunned Walsh in the first game of the final, falling behind 0-2 before reeling off four consecutive kills and eventually ten consecutive points to win 15 of the last 16 points of the first game.
Funchion continued his torrid streak in game two, leading 4-0 and threatening to run away with the match. Walsh connected on several deep court kills, wrestling away Funchion’s momentum on his way to a 10-7 lead. Walsh appeared to be in command at that stage, serving at 13-12 several minutes later. Funchion earned a side out and score three consecutive points to win his the biggest title to date.
“I want to thank David for a great final,” Peter would say at the trophy presentation. “This is only the second tournament on the season, so the training is only getting going. Even just to make a final after watching all the big names have won this tournament down to the years, like Paul Brady, Robbie, Tony, all the greats – I just wanted to put on a performance that was worthy of them.
The first game kind of went my way, I was killing the ball and lucky enough David was not serving his best and I kind of capitalized on that. Second game, I’m not sure how I pulled it off to be honest. I kind of changed my serve a little bit and kind of got the luck of the green. It’s lovely to see the crowd here. Thanks a million.”
Semifinals
Walsh def D. Lynch 15-5, 15-7
Pet. Funchion vs. D. Relihan 15-8, 15-11
Men’s Open draw HERE
GAA homepage HERE
GAA on Facebook HERE
2025/26 GAA Ranking Event #1 Golden Gloves WPH recap HERE
Watch the matches on the GAA YouTube channel HERE
Photos courtesy of GAA Handball – retrieved from GAA Handball on Facebook
David Fink
WPH Senior Writer