The Dublin International Handball Club has launched free training sessions for children aged seven to sixteen in Swords, Phibblestown and Corduff.
The sessions are on weekly and are in collaboration with Fingal County Council, Irish Olympic Handball Association, Sport Ireland, Fingal Sports Office and Corduff Sports Centre.
Currently all of the sessions are completely free of charge. President of the Dublin International Handball Club Goran Seselj, told Dublin Live: "Olympic Handball is the second biggest sport in Europe after soccer. When played you have two teams of seven on a pitch and you score points by getting the ball in the goal.
I would describe it as a mix of GAA, basketball and volleyball. It is known Irish people like sports that are a bit rougher like rugby and GAA and handball is also a rough contact sport, it is just not as popular."
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The Croatian native said: "I've been playing handball since I was 12-years-old as it is a very popular sport in Croatia and then when I came to Ireland I started this club and then after some time I became the president as well as a player and a coach.
"We are a self-funding club and living from the players fees that we have from senior teams so we have a lot of volunteers. Some coaches are players as well and we are doing our best at the moment but we would love to expand and to have more people involved in the club over time."
The Dublin International men's team have currently won ten titles and six cups since its inception and the women's team have won three titles and one cup in Ireland.
The junior handball sessions have been in operation since March and Goran said that they are hoping to expand to more people and locations in September once families are back to their regular schedules after the summer holidays.
Goran added: "Usually we have around 12 to 15 children in each sessions but it varies week to week and our real hope over time is to get children interested in the sport and to have it become more well known in Ireland."
To get involved in the classes people can reach out to the club on their website or through Facebook.
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