Wednesday, February 5: New Ireland Senior Women’s Head Coach Gareth Grundie today announced his 18 strong squad to travel to Chile at the end of February to compete in the FIH Nations Cup, putting an end to an eight month wait since the Ireland Women’s Hockey Team last appeared in an international competition.
Sarah Hawkshaw will wear the captain’s armband for the first time in Chile, returning to the city where she made her first senior international appearance back in 2019. She is joined by the experience of Roisín Upton, Elena Neill, and former-captain Katie Mullan. And goalkeeper Ayeisha McFerran returns to the squad for the first time in over 12 months. The two-time World Goalkeeper of the Year was unavailable for international duty for the second half of 2024 after she suffered an injury while in competition with Dutch club HC Tillberg.
Also named in the squad are new faces to the Senior Women’s Team in UCD’s Mikayla Power and Loreto’s Emily Kealy. Power has been an ever-present figure in Ireland’s underage pathway system, most recently impressing during Ireland’s 2024 EuroHockey U21 Championship campaign during which she played a vital role in the team’s qualification for the 2025 FIH Junior World Cup. Kealy earns her call up after several impressive seasons at club level, proving a vital component of Monkstown’s Irish Senior Cup winning team in 2023 before moving to Loreto in 2024, and looks on course to secure an EY Hockey League medal this season.
Ireland have been drawn in Pool B for the Nations Cup and will face Scotland, New Zealand, and Korea as they venture to go one step better than their 2024 Silver Medal, with qualification to the 2025/26 FIH Pro League being the ultimate goal. They will start their Nations Cup campaign against Scotland on February 23rd at 20:00 Irish Time.
Speaking at the announcement, Head Coach Gareth Grundie said:
“I am very much looking forward to it. We’ve had a really good six-week block as build-up and a productive trip to Spain last week preparing for the tournament. We can’t wait to get started.
The team have learned a lot from the last one [2024 Nations Cup]. We’re ranked third in the competition; we’re more than capable of beating anybody so for us it’s about bringing a level of consistency into every game.”
Discussing the 2025 Competition Calendar as a whole, Grundie said:
“2025 is a very exciting year for the team. First up is the Nations Cup in Chile with the opportunity to get into the FIH Pro League.
Later in the summer we have the EuroHockey Championships in Germany with a spot in the next World Cup up for grabs. These are real opportunities for us to demonstrate what this squad is capable of”.
Discussing captaining her country for the first time, Sarah Hawkshaw said:
“I am excited to be leading this team. The team that it is makes it easy for me as there is a very strong leadership group, having them there makes my role as captain a bit easier.
When asked about the team’s goal for the competition, Hawkshaw said:
“We want to win it but to do that we need to achieve consistent performances in each game. We want to be pushing our standards. We want to be in the top 10 ranked hockey nations consistently. Consistency is something we want to achieve, and Gareth has been preparing for that aim, it’s something we want to achieve in this tournament – We are going for gold.”
Ireland Squad
Charlotte Beggs
Niamh Carey
Michelle Carey
Naomi Carroll
Ellen Curran
Christina Hamill
Sarah Hawkshaw (C)
Emily Kealy
Sarah McAuley
Ayeisha McFerran (GK)
Hannah McLoughlin
Katie Mullan
Elizabeth Murphy (GK)
Elena Neill
Caoimhe Perdue
Mikayla Power
Sarah Torrans
Roisin Upton
Fixtures
Sunday, February 23rd – IRELAND vs SCOTLAND – 20:00 Irish time.
Tuesday February 25th – IRELAND vs NEW ZEALAND – 20:00 Irish time.
Thursday February 27th – IRELAND vs KOREA – 20:00 Irish time.
March 1st and 2nd – Crossover Matches