Some Guys Have All The Puck

Thomas Taylor Nolan SAT8FEB25

hen the bould Helen Taylor got in touch with GG to say that she heard tell of a young Temple Carrig School student who was all set to represent Ireland in ice hockey way over in Kalamazoo, naturally we thought the lady must be taking the Micheál.

Ireland has an ice hockey team!? There’s a place actually called Kalamazoo!?!!

Turns out that we do indeed have an ice hockey team. And Kalamazoo is currently sitting snowy over in Michigan, USA, a city that’s certifiably ice hockey mad.

Which means Thomas Taylor Nolan is going to fit right in, having fallen in love with the sport just over 2½ years ago through, would you believe, video games.

“It took me a while to find any other likeminded souls,” he says when we met up at his Temple Carrig School gates this afternoon, “but that only made me more determined. Once I discovered The Irish Ice Hockey Association, that opened up a whole lot of connections, and I was on my way…”

All the way to representing Ireland in the U16 squad from March 11th to 16th at the Wings Event Centre in Michigan, to be precisel

“Given that the only proper ice hockey rink in the country is the Dundonald International Ice Bowl up in Belfast, most of my training is done on roller skates,” continues Thomas. “But when you don’t have a level playing field, so to speak, it actually makes you train harder…”

Something that Greystones’ Cormac Smith would have related to when he was part of the Irish bobsleigh team at the 1992 Olympics.

Still, ice hockey still has a long way to go in this country, Ireland’s best result being 23-1 against Armenia way back in 2005. The biggest defeat came 6 years later, with Romania winning 22-0. That said, The Irish Saints did come first in the Development Cup last year. Whatever that is.

“We don’t get any funding in this country,” finishes Thomas, “but we’re still determined to build an ice hockey rink somewhere in or around Dublin. The passion is there, the hunger too – we just need to get the planning…”

And some moolah for flights, hotels, food agus water, etc. There’s a team GoFundMe right here, but if any local business is up for a little sponsorship, you can email here.

In the meantime, we talk slapshots, long shots and puck dreams with Greystones’ coolest teenager… 

You can find out more about The Irish Ice Hockey Association right here, and that GoFundMe for Kalamazoo again is here.