Killarney Outlet Centre Saves The Day! 

When the Killarney Outlet Centre heard about the unfortunate little girls from An Ghaeltacht Handball Team who were forced to hand back their gold medals which they won in a national handball competition on June 22nd, they decided they wanted to “save the day”!

The four West Kerry girls; Orlagh Ní Shé, Katie Ní Mhuircheartaigh, Róisín Breathnach and Ellen Nic Gearailt, were delighted when they won the Under 14’s competition, but no sooner had news of the girls win spread, when the medal tarnishing moment occurred. Competition organisers discovered the team had to play a tie break.  This meant that the girls, some of them on the way home with their medals, had to return to Dublin to play the tie break.  Not surprisingly due to the additional stress of all of this, the girls unfortunately lost this tie break and were then told to return their medals.

The team at the Killarney Outlet Centre put their heads together and came up with the idea of presenting the four girls with a selection of goodies from stores within the Centre. Each girl was presented with a €50 shopping voucher from the popular Nike Factory Store, a fantastic goodie bag from Claire’s Accessories, and a €25 shopping voucher from Jean Scene.

An Ghaeltacht Handball coach Eilín Ní Lúing said “When I received the phone call from the Killarney Outlet Centre with their kind offer, I couldn’t believe it. I knew this would cheer the girls up no end. The support and generosity of all at Killarney Outlet Centre will be remembered by An Ghaeltacht Handball Club for a long time, and we would especially like to thank Nike, Jean Scene and Claire’s Accessories.”

At the presentation, Paul Sherry, Killarney Outlet Centre Manager said: “I would like to congratulate these four girls on their achievement, everyone in Kerry is so proud of them and I’m delighted that Killarney Outlet Centre was able to put much deserved smiles back on their faces.”

Since the events of June 22nd, An Ghaeltacht Handball Team have been declared joint winners, with Garryhill, Carlow, following a mediation process undertaken by Tony Hannon, President of the Irish Handball Council.