DCU students represent Ireland at European Powerchair Nations Cup
Two Dublin City University students were part of the Ireland side that finished fourth at the recent European Powercair Football Nations Cup. Aoife McNicholl, a second year Psychology student, and Patrick Flanagan, who is in the process of completing his Master’s Degree in Multimedia, were the DCU contingent of the side that took part in the inaugural continental championships, hosted in Limerick, between the 17th and 21st of July.
An excellent 2-0 win over Switzerland preceded Ireland’s 1-1 draw with Denmark which proved to be a vital result in the team getting to the semi-finals where they went down to an extremely strong France outfit that eventually went on to win the competition. Unfortunately, it was to be heartbreak for Ireland in the third place play-off with Belgium winning the match after a penalty shoot –out.
Despite the Belgium result, DCU’s Aoife McNicholl was chosen as the player of the tournament after a series of impressive performances which brought Ireland to the last four in Europe. On top of this, the Irish side’s finish has resulted in qualification for the Powerchair World Cup in Brazil next year. Overall, Patrick Flanagan deems the tournament to have been very successful for Irish powerchair football:
"It was an unbelievable experience. Both the organisation of the competition and performance of the team confirmed Ireland’s arrival at the top table of the international game. We can now have genuine aspirations to win the World Cup in 2015 and I hope we see our national game go from strength-to-strength in terms of participation and support."
Powerchair football is one of the fastest growing disability sports in the world and allows people who are power wheelchair users to participate in the sport. Powerchair football came into existence in the late 1970s but has only been played in Ireland since 2003. Games are contested by teams of four players who, over the course of two 20 minute halves of action, push or strike an oversized football around a court, attempting to outscore their opponents in the same way as mainstream football.
Originally, powerchair football was played sporadically at tournaments organised by Muscular Dystrophy Ireland (MDI) before the FAI’s ‘Football for All’ programme arrived and the Association of Irish Powerchair Football (AIPF) was set up in 2009.
There are currently six operational clubs in Ireland including Patrick’s club Kingdom Rebels and Midlands United, for whom Aoife plays.
Patrick and Aoife have also been pivotal to the setup of a new powerchair team in DCU and are currently looking for people to get involved and play with the side, even if they are not a DCU student.