Hockey Ireland
field hockey governing body
Hockey Ireland, previously known as the Irish Hockey Association, is the governing body for field hockey in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It is responsible for organising both the Ireland men's national field hockey team and the Ireland women's national field hockey team, as well as national leagues and cup competitions. Hockey Ireland is mainly funded through grants as well as small contributions from Sport Ireland, Sport Northern Ireland and the Olympic Council of Ireland. In 2013 Hockey Ireland became a limited company. Approximately 168 clubs and 280 schools are affiliated to Hockey Ireland.
History
The Irish Hockey Union was founded on 6 February 1893, following a meeting at the Wicklow Hotel. The men's Irish Senior Cup was first played for in 1893–94, making it the oldest field hockey cup competition in the world. The men's Irish Junior Cup was first played for in 1894–95. On 26 January 1895 the Ireland men's national field hockey team played in the first ever international field hockey match when they defeated Wales 3–0 in Rhyl. The Irish Ladies Hockey Union was established in 1894, following a meeting at Alexandra College.
“Hockey Ireland” enters the record as field hockey governing body. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Hockey, Ireland and field can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Hockey Ireland” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Hockey, Ireland and field provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q326152. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2013, 1893, 1894 and 1895.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow Hockey Ireland primary sources, Hockey Ireland archive and Hockey research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Hockey Ireland” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.