On Saturday evening while most eyes were on the Olympics in Paris, Irish sporting history was created in Wroclaw in Poland when Ireland won the European Lacrosse title, beating old foes England in the final.
Mayo was well-represented on the winning team with Ian Galvin and Sean Horkan to the fore as the title was secured with a 10-7 win over England in a thrilling final.
Galvin, from Cape Cod in Massachusetts with a proud Ballina father, and Horkan from New Hampshire with a Claremorris grandfather, were proud men at the end of a hugely successful championships in Poland.
“It was a once in a lifetime experience and getting to represent our Irish and Mayo heritage was amazing,” Horkan told The Mayo News on Saturday night.
From the opening day of the championships the Irish team had been told that their near neighbours England were the favourites to win the title, but it didn't sit well with the boys in green according to Horkan. “We were super fired up and pumped to make sure that we would be victorious on Saturday in the final.”
The young Irish team comfortably got through the group stages. They opened the tournament with an 8-3 win against Germany before defeating Switzerland 14-1. They closed out the group stages with an 11-5 win against their Eastern European opponents Latvia before a comfortable 11-4 victory against Israel.
It was obvious that Ireland were in with a string chance of ultimate glory and this was further emphasised when they defeated the Netherlands 10-3 in the quarter-final. They followed that up with an 11-3 win in the semi-final to set up a decider against England.
That match proved to be a huge success for the men in green and afterwards Galvin described the action. “It was a really good game. We controlled the whole pace of it as we kept possession for most of the game and played well in offence and defence. We did really well on the face-offs (restarts at the start of each quarter or after a goal), considering England's man was supposed to be the best of the tournament. He did absolutely nothing against us as we simply outplayed England and completely out-coached them as well.”
The win was hugely historic for Ireland, a fact not lost on Horkan. “We're the first Irish team to beat England at a major tournament and it's also the first Irish team to ever win gold at a major tournament,” he proudly explained.
In the last three years the Irish U-20 sides have done well in the World Championships in Limerick and have now followed up with a European title in Poland.
These results are hugely encouraging as the Irish Lacrosse side look towards at the Olympics and qualifying for the 2028 games in Los Angeles.
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