History
of Lughnasa
Handball
Club
Like all good histories they
are only written because the events that are described therein are
either good or bad, but most definitely have a pretty insignificant
beginning leading to a climax that exceeds your basic run-of-the-mill
sexual experience.
Slightly Tenuous Link
And so it is with Lughnasa Handball Club. Picture
the opening credits of Star Wars Episode IV and you have pretty much
got the panoramic view of Irish handball. Pre-1990 Irish handball was
in a very healthy state, let's call it "the Old Republic". The
President of the time was a kind and generous benefactor. Mini handball
was booming, many young Jedi's were leaving behind the dark ways of
soccer and basketball and embracing the light that is Olympic Handball
(for so it was named to distinguish it from Irish "wreck your hand
banging a ball against a wall" handball). And so it flourished. 16
men's teams playing a standard of Handball that is best forgotten, and
8 women's teams.
Life
was good in Utopia and it was only with the coming of foreign teams to
this shore that there came whispers of unrest. There were some who
believed that things were not good and that a time had come for new
leadership, younger, more vibrant and so it was that the dark side
reared its ugly head in "Olympic Handball Land". Slowly the new "way"
usurped the old way and slowly the free teams of "O.H.L." fell to the
dominion of the new way and slowly faded into dust. Yet among the
desolation there was one, the one who would bring balance to "O.H.".
And so
we picture episode IV.........
Cue Music
Olympic Handball
is failing. One by
one
the teams have
disappeared
to be replaced by none.
Only a few
desperate
disciples remain, leaderless,
scattered,
disinterested. But just when all
hope was lost the
former all-round good guy
ex-president
approached Tomás in a dream and said
that a small seed
could be sown that would once again unite the
good teams of
"O.H.L.". It would mean starting a school team in exactly
the same school in
which handball had started twenty years before in Ireland.
The year was
Nineteen-ninety-two, Three years after the last free team had fallen.
Induction
Armed only with 5 out of date balls and a pump
not unlike a light sabre he made an impassioned speech to all the young
15-16 year olds of the school for the reward of hard training was to be
a trip to France to play in the European School Championships. Unknown
to Tom other people were also made aware of this reward and so he was
betrayed and yet not, for the good ex-president believed that all
competition was good. And so began the training of fishermen, swimmers,
chess players and basketball players to become the team that would
carry the hopes of a nation. After 3 months they won the Irish
championship and made the trip to France.
Trip to France
And so began the trip to France which ended in
heavy defeats in most games but respectability in some. And so it
happened that love of handball grew within the hearts of the boys. They
continuously asked to start a team, a club that would spread the gospel
of Handball to the darkened lands. As fate would have it we met a
wandering goalkeeper destined to exile on the ships of the world and
with him on board (if you'll excuse the pun) we decided that we would
start the quest.
Names
What do you call a handball team. We thought of
Tallaght, as our team in a far off age was once known, TCSOB (Tallaght
Community School Old Boys) and the SOB does not stand for "sons of
bitches", Dublin City but this would not have allowed for teams from
Dublin in the future and then the great Éamonn Ó Laocha
came up with the answer. "We are an Irish team and so as we will at
first need to travel away to play teams then
our name shall be Irish. As our club has been set up in the month of
August we shall call ourselves Lughnasa. For those of you who do not
speak Gaelic, Lughnasa
(pronounced Loonasa) is an ancient Irish feast day which was celebrated
in August and thanked the gods for a good summer and prayed for a good
harvest to come. Lots of food and sex were had by all and this is still
celebrated by our team and some day we hope to have an women's team
present. The month of August is still called Lúnasa in Gaelic
and the pronunciation is the same.
Training Times
<!--[if
!vml]--><!--[endif]-->As with all fledgling teams the cost of starting a club
were too great and the magnificent ex-principal, Dara gave us the hall
free of charge. We trained twice a week with no matches at all and so
it went on. The loyalty of the players never foundered. Thus it came to
pass that we were invited to a
<!--[endif]-->tournament in the Isle of Man which we won on our first
trip. From this we made many contacts and so our team were invited to
many tournaments in England. Our first win was something of a fluke
because ever after that we were destroyed by English teams. It was not
unusual to be beaten by 30 goals in a game in the early days and while
some players lost heart others took their place at the forefront of the
cause.
Players Graveyard
A big debt of gratitude is due to the following
players for making LHC what it is today. Many gave their best years in
the pursuit of building handball into what it is today, but they were
lured away by soccer, gambling, beer and WOMEN! And as Yoda once said,
"Soccer leads to gambling, gambling to beer, beer to women. The dark
side are these.". So to all these guys we say thanks for the good years
and we bend over AND SHOW THEM OUR DARK SIDES.
19 Damien Bolger
Colin Redmond, Tom's mullet, Daniel O'Brien, Dara Fox,
Berko
(front l-r) Tommy Begley, Niall O'Toole, Ronnie,
Eamonn Ó Laocha
Tom, Lonja and Mats. Lonja Syverstad from near to
Lillehamar in Norway, deserves a special mention as she is the only
female that has ever played senior mens handball with LHC. It should be
added that she outplayed most of the men on the team.
Jag elsker Norge, Lonja....
(Left) Niall Lynch
(Right) Noel Molloy
Thanks
Guys!!
Coaches
Michael Oberst (Germany) 1991 - 1993
Mats
Mickos (Finland) 1993 - 1997
Aram Ziai (Germany) 1997 - 1998 [No Pic available]
Tom Ó Brannagáin (Ireland) 1998 –
2000
Andrea
Ongaro (Italy) 2000 
Tournaments
After our first win in the Isle of Man, LHC
travelled for many years to England and the Isle of Man in search of
another elusive title. Here are some of the teams that travelled and
the position in which they finished.
Setting up the Irish League
As has been told, the dark days of handball had
seen the demise of all male and female handball teams in Ireland.
Lughnasa believed that only by setting up other senior teams in Ireland
could they hope to survive. And so it was that they called many former
players to reform old teams. Out of this was born in 1993, Pelekas
Handball Club. The news of LHC had traveled far
and wide and foreign students visiting these shores set up a club at DCU in 1997. Now there were four teams playing in the league
as LHC always tried to enter two teams in the league, one called
Lughnasa, and the other Dagda. DIT and UCD followed soon after with UCD now entering two teams in
the league. In 2001, St. Patrick’s College entered a team for the first
time. This brought the number of senior men’s teams to eight. However,
although competition at home was fierce LHC kept up its policy of
travel to play teams from abroad.
National Team
As many photos of Irish teams as possible who
traveled and dates along with them. Cyprus 1999, Latvia 2001. List
Lughnasa players.
To
all of you who made all this possible.
Sláinte!!!
Tom
Ó Brannagáin.