Northern Ireland, Ireland and Scotland share honours at 2019 Celtic Nations

Honours were shared at Queen’s University Belfast in the 2019 run of the Celtic Nations, the annual Volleyball celebration of Ireland’s Patron Saint Patrick on his feast day, March 17. This was the 43rd edition of the event.

In the Junior (Under 19s) hosts Northern Ireland won both the men’s and women’s matches against the Republic of Ireland, with the men triumphing 3-0 (25-15, 25-15, 25-18) and the women sealing a 3-1 (23-25, 25-21, 25-22, 25-22) win in their fixture.

At Senior level, the Scottish National teams flew to Belfast thru very stormy weather but the Scotsmen succeeded in blowing away their Irish opposition beating Northern Ireland 3-0 (25-23, 25-21, 25-23) and Ireland by the same score 3-0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-16). Northern Ireland took second place beating their southern visitors by 3-0 (25-15, 25-15, 25-18).

In the Senior Women’s triangular, all the matches were closely fought sets with Scotland beating the hosts Northern Ireland 3-0 (25-17, 25-16, 25-18) but losing to Ireland after coming from two sets down by 3-2 (25-21, 25-20, 17-25, 20-25, 15-12). The southern Irish visitors took the titles with a hard-fought win over hosts Northern Ireland 3-0 (25-20, 25-18, 25-19).

“Next year is the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the Northern Ireland Volleyball Association (NIVA) and the Saint Patrick’s weekend has been a good preparation for that,” said Celtic Nations 2019 Director Joanna McGrory, NIVA Vice President.

NIVA President Irena Mannik was delighted with the quality of the eight matches. “We had the best crowd of hundreds at volleyball in Queen’s for some several years who arrived early and stayed to the finish. I am very grateful to the families and volunteers, to the players, coaches and officials who made it such a success for Northern Ireland’s Volleyball and Saint Patrick!”