The European Hockey Federation have today announced that Ireland will host the 2005 Women's Hockey European Nations Cup while Germany will host the Men's Championship.
Next year's championships will be hed at the National Hockey Stadium at UCD Belfield, Dublin in August. The event will be split into two divisions of eight countries for first time.
Ireland won the event in 2002 but only managed to finish sixth in Barcelona last year. Nevertheless, they qualify automatically for next year as hosts.
This will be the sixth major hockey tournament to be held in Ireland in the last 10 years. In 1994 the Women's World Cup was held in Dublin with the Men's European Championships following in 1995.
More recently, the 2002 men's and women's European Qualifiers were held in UCD, while the Under-18 Girls European Championships were held here last year. The Irish Hockey Association (IHA) will also host the Under-21 Women's Championships this July.