Thursday, September 10 – Dublin: The first-ever Special Olympics Ireland x Hockey Ireland National Competition took place on Sunday, 6 September at the Sport Ireland Campus, marking another significant milestone in the groundbreaking partnership between Hockey Ireland and Special Olympics Ireland.
The inaugural Games brought together six teams, with players representing Leinster, Eastern Region, Munster and Connacht. Botanic, Midleton, Railway Union, Skerries and Monkstown were joined by a mixed team made up of players from Wicklow, Avoca and Greenfields.
The morning session focused on divisioning, with teams assessed and placed alongside others of a similar level to ensure meaningful and competitive games in the afternoon. The afternoon games then provided an opportunity for individual player-grading across Grades 1–4, with awards based on the afternoon results from the two pools/division.
The Games are an important development in the creation of a Special Olympics competition pathway for hockey, delivered through the partnership between Hockey Ireland and Special Olympics Ireland.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed earlier this year, formalised a partnership that has been developing over the past four years and enables athletes with an intellectual disability to access Special Olympics competition opportunities through Hockey Ireland’s network of affiliated clubs. The partnership incorporates Special Olympics rules, processes, divisioning and grading into the delivery of hockey within the Special Olympics framework.
The Special Olympics pathway complements Hockey Ireland’s existing inclusive hockey structures. Hockey4All continues to provide opportunities for players with disabilities to participate at club level, while HockeyID provides a national representative pathway for players with intellectual disabilities aspiring to represent Ireland internationally. HockeyID recently represented Ireland at the inaugural FIH Para Hockey World Cup, highlighting the breadth of opportunities now available to players across Hockey Ireland’s inclusive programmes.
A key outcome of Sunday’s Games is that hockey is now eligible for consideration for the 2027 Special Olympics World Games in Chile. Special Olympics Ireland expects to confirm its sport quota by the end of September. Should hockey receive a quota place for the first time, a grade will be selected, with players within that grade then randomly selected in October to represent Ireland at the 2027 World Games.
This could see hockey establishing its first representative team at a Special Olympics World Games, creating an exciting new opportunity for athletes with intellectual disabilities to progress through the Special Olympics competition pathway and potentially represent Ireland on the international stage.
The successful staging of the first Special Olympics Ireland x Hockey Ireland Games is therefore another important milestone in the MOU partnership — building on the work already taking place through Hockey4All and HockeyID, while opening a new Special Olympics competition pathway for athletes.
With the first Games successfully delivered, Hockey Ireland and Special Olympics Ireland will continue to work together to develop opportunities for athletes to play, compete and progress within the Special Olympics pathway, while strengthening the wider inclusive hockey landscape in Ireland.
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