History will be made on Saturday in the National Handball Centre, Croke Park when Clare line out in both Ladies and Men’s Senior Doubles semi-finals.
Coming through the opening weekend of games are Diarmaid Nash and Colin Crehan who played Galway pair (Oisin Ó Cualáin and Conor Noone) on Friday evening in Crinkle, Offaly and then overcame the Wicklow pair (Michael Cregan and Jerome Willoughby) on Sunday in the quarter-final in Croke Park.
The experienced Banner pair will now face the Cork duo of Liscarroll’s Michael Hedigan and Daniel Relihan. These have had many battles over the years and last time they met in doubles was when the Cork pair won their maiden All-Ireland Senior Doubles title in 2024. Indeed, the Cork pair overcame another Clare doubles pairing of Colin Corbett and Niall Bolton in this season’s first round, when the Tulla duo ran the home side close in a 21-18, 21-14 battle on Wednesday evening and then Cork overcame Meath in the quarter-final. This will be an eagerly anticipated game and will have great interest around it.
Antrim and Kilkenny will meet in the other semi-final as Rainey and Jordan look to build on their momentum to take on the Funchion brothers, current All-Ireland Senior Doubles Champions holders, having defeated Cork pairing of David Walsh and Tadgh O’Neill in a tie break in the quarter-final.
The ladies semi-final will see the Tuamgraney pair of Caitríona Millane and Leah Minogue face Kildare sisters Mollie and Hannah Dagg. The Clare pair are in their second year in the senior grade and with last year’s experience behind them they will be hoping to take a huge step this season. To get a semi-final win and a place in the final would be a massive achievement. The Clare girls have prepared well together and individually both have had respectable seasons with Millane proving a difficult opponent in the singles. Minogue was in her first year as a senior player, having won Intermediate in 2025. She is making steady improvements and together they will be looking to battle this out. The opposite semi-final sees Galway favourites (Ciana Ní Churraoin & Niamh Heffernan) play Cork’s Carmel Kelleher & Aisling O’Keeffe. Kelleher recently won this year’s Intermediate singles title and with the experienced O’Keeffe beside her they will hope to work the current champions hard to give themselves a chance at an upset.
Games start from 2pm on Saturday in the National Handball Centre, Croke Park with matches live-streamed on the TG4 YouTube Channel.
Masters and Overage Doubles
Also on Saturday in the National Handball Centre, there is a full card of games with Masters grade semi-finals.
Clare will take part in two semi-finals with Shane Walsh (Tuamgraney) and Mike Baker (Kilkishen) joining for the Master’s B and Kilkishen’s Jim Cleary and Greg Shanahan pairing for the Golden Masters B grade. There is plenty of experience here with three of the four having been in singles semi-finals and indeed Walsh and Cleary getting to finals. They will again be meeting Ulster opponents in the semi-finals with Tyrone and Down providing the opposition this time round.
Sunday will see the semi-finals from grades of Minor to Intermediate and again Clare will be well represented. With the recent titles in both Ladies and Men’s Minor singles, Clare are again well represented in the semi-finals of the doubles. Claire Minogue (Tuamgraney) and Isabelle McInerney (Toonagh) again pair up and will hope to at least repeat last years level on reaching the final day. They will play Tyrone opposition in their semi-final. Sean Considine (Clooney-Quin) will pair with Eoin Shanahan (Kilkishen) and again Tyrone will provide the opposition. This is the first year of championship doubles action for these boys and they will be hopeful of getting a strong performance which would bring them to the final.
Tulla’s sister pair of Niamh and Orla O’Brien who were both in respective semi-finals of Junior and Junior B will play Tyrone opposition in the Junior semi-final. They overcame fellow Clare pair of Kilkishen’s Chloe Philpott and Fina Close to win the Munster title. Orla will know both Tyrone opponents well, having defeated Clare Conway in the singles before losing a narrow battle with Caislean Treacy in the semi-final. Niamh lost her Junior Singles semi-final to Galway. The sisters are now looking forward to getting a chance to return to Croke Park and an opportunity to overturn the last results they had there.
Tony Leyden, after his Junior B Singles title, pairs up with fellow Tulla clubmate Evan Corbett. Fresh from their Munster final win last week, they will now face Monaghan in the semi-final, one of whom Tony defeated in the singles semi-final so a repeat strong showing will be hoped for. It may not be as easy this time round as the second of the Monaghan pair will have the experience of playing in the Senior Doubles quarter-final where he partnered with Eoghan McGinnity.
Seanie Doyle and Tiarnan Slattery play in the Junior Doubles semi-final, having won the Munster title a few weeks ago now. Doyle, who was runner-up in the All-Ireland Junior singles just a few weeks ago, will be hoping to go one better in the doubles this time round. They meet a Tyrone pair who will be an unfamiliar challenge to them, but the Tuamgraney duo have plenty of skill in them.
All finals will take place the following weekend April 25/26, in the National Handball Centre, Croke Park.
Fixtures
Saturday April 18th
Senior Ladies Semi-final
Clare (Caitríona Millane/Leah Minogue) v Kildare (Mollie Dagg/Hannah Dagg)
Senior Men’s Semi-final
Clare (Diarmaid Nash/Colin Crehan) v Cork (Daniel Relihan/Michael Hedigan)
Masters B Doubles
Clare (Shane Walsh/Mike Baker) v Tyrone (Stephen Conway/Derek Ryan)
Golden Masters B Doubles
Clare (Jim Cleary/Greg Shanahan) v Down (Shane Kelly/Coline Sheilds)
Sunday April 19th
Minor Ladies Doubles
Clare (Claire Minogue/Isabelle McInerney) v Tyrone (Mary-Jo Morris/Niamh O’Gara)
Junior Doubles
Clare (Orla O’Brien/Niamh O’Brien) v Tyrone (Caislin Tracey/Clare Conway)
Minor Men’s
Clare (Sean Considine/Eoin Shanahan) v Tyrone (Ben McGarvey/Aaron McElhone)
Junior B Doubles
Clare (Tony Leyden/Evan Corbett) v Monaghan(Szymon Polewski/Ramuanas Ramanauka)
Junior Doubles
Clare (Seanie Doyle/Tiernan Slattery) v Tyrone (Caolan McCartan/Matthew McCartan)
