154 players to play at this weekend’s Irish Masters Nationals in Dublin

A huge number of 154 players will take part in the two-day Irish Masters Nationals from Friday across three Dublin clubs.

A total of 161 registrations were entered on the SportyHQ tournament site by the close of entry deadline last week, but the confirmed number of 154 players who will play at Fitzwilliam, Mount Pleasant and Leinster CC still represents a huge increase on recent editions.

Coming out of the pandemic, only 96 players played in 2022, rising to 118 in 2023 and 128 in 2024 before dipping to 122 in 2025. An extra 32 players are now in the draws across the 10 men’s and six women’s categories.

Leinster CC’s Peter McNeice has retained his No.1 seeding for the MO35. He had to settle for third place last year after losing his semi-final to Galway’s David Noone, the No.4, who then defeated the seventh-seeded Sam Olwill from Carlow in the final.

With Noone, the Squash Ireland junior performance coach, moving up to MO40 this year, McNeice will begin his latest MO35 campaign at his home Leinster club on Friday afternoon against Sligo’s Seamus Clancy, the No.8.

Olwill is now listed as No.3 with a quarter-final versus Fitzwilliam’s Conor O’Hare, the No.6, while Belfast’s Mark Gilliland, the No.2 seed, opens against Rory Canavan, the No.7 seed from ABC.

The other men’s top seeds for the 2026 Masters Nationals are:

• Defending MO40 champion Niall Rooney of Fitzwilliam;
• Fitzwilliam’s Nigel Peyton in the MO45;
• ALSAA’s David O’Shaughnessy in the MO45B;
• Defending MO50 champion David Ayerst of Windsor;
• Defending MO55 champion Brian Lalor of Curragh;
• Fitzwilliam’s Gerry Callanan in the MO60;
• Highfield’s John Dineen in the MO65;
• Highfield’s Donal Coughlan in the MO70;
• Southdown’s Paddy Butler in the MO75.

Fitzwilliam’s Derek Ryan, the former PSA World No.7, is listed as the No.2 seed in the MO50, having last month won the Leinster Masters.

Switching to the women’s section, last year’s WO35/40 was a five-player box event won by Mount Pleasant’s Ciara Davey, the No.2 seed, but 13 players will now take part in this year’s knockout event.

Carlow’s Ciara Moloney Doheny is the No.1 seed awaiting a quarter-final against either TCD’s Patricia Ryan, the No.8, or Claire King, the No.9 from Mount Pleasant.

Defending champion Davey will start as the No.4 seed in a round of 16 match versus Caroline Bujak, the No.13 from Barnstown.

Tanya Scullion of Cookstown is the No.2, and she will start her campaign in the quarter-finals against either Helen Byrne, the No.7 from Westwood, or Noelle McCarron, the No.10 from Galway.  

The No.1 seeds in the five other women’s events are:

• Sutton’s Niamh Darcy in the WO45;
• WO50 defending champion Rachel McNulty of Galway;
• Westwood’s Danielle Donoghue in the WO55;
• Mount Pleasant’s Mary Keyes in the WO60;
• Highfield’s Dympna Reardon in the WO65.

The 2026 Irish Masters Nationals will be followed on Saturday night by the Squash Ireland Awards 2025 ceremony at Fitzwilliam.

• Click here for all the draw details on SportyHQ

• Click here for the Squash Ireland YouTube channel that will show matches live from all three clubs