Squash Ireland has published the findings of its 2025 club survey, a 35-page document providing an island-wide overview of trends and development priorities in the sport.
A total of 58 clubs – 50 in the Republic and eight in the North – contributed, and the headlines were adult participation continues to grow, female participation is showing sustained upward momentum, while junior development remains a key national priority.
Several clubs reported increasing demand and some operated at or near full capacity in an overall picture consisting of 3,345 men’s players, 1,056 women’s players and 810 junior players.
With average membership priced at €157.55, it was found that a dozen clubs – an increase from nine in 2024 – were operating at capacity, with more than half of the 58 clubs surveyed stating that they were keen to broaden their participation and inclusion initiatives.
Key points that emerged from the club structure questionnaire included 42 clubs having written constitutions and 50 clubs having established committees, signalling how governance frameworks are now embedded in clubs to support transparency and long-term sustainability.
Challenges that were identified in the establishment of committees included a lack of volunteers, small club size, affiliation under GAA governance and a perceived lack of need.
Eighteen clubs have committees consisting of seven to nine members, with chair, treasurer, secretary and safeguarding roles almost universally filled. There was a view to expand to cover communications, development initiatives and Women In Sport leadership.
It was found that 42 club committees had a male-majority, highlighting a clear opportunity for further increase in female representation on leadership and coaching roles.
Switching to the juniors, it was learned that 30 clubs currently run a junior section – up one from 2024 – and that 15 of the remaining 28 clubs surveyed plan to start a junior section. Six of those clubs said they already had someone willing to lead the rollout of a junior section.
With regard to coaching, the survey found that 40 clubs have a qualified coach and that 15 clubs have four or more internal coaches. It added that there was a clear interest in strengthening access to qualified coaching support and expanding availability, especially for junior, women and beginner sessions.
The survey also highlighted that more than half the clubs – 52 per cent, up from 40 per cent in 2024 – had actively promoted inclusivity in 2025, with women-only sessions and one-day junior tournaments viewed as the most effective and popular inclusion initiatives.
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:
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:
The 2026 Irish Masters Nationals will be followed on Saturday night by the Squash Ireland Awards 2025 ceremony at Fitzwilliam.
Ireland had a 35-strong contingent at this weekend’s German Junior Open in Hamburg, the latest gold status event on the European squash circuit.
Four newly-crowned Irish Junior Nationals champions – Harry Knox (BU13), Michael Lai (BU15), Aaron Knox (BU19) and Shriya Drawid (GU19) – all travelled to Germany just days after last Sunday’s success in Cork.
BU13: Ireland’s list of nine entrants was headed up by Harry Knox, who was seeded No.1 for the 44-player event. Beaten in the quarter-finals, the new Irish Junior Nationals champion went on to finish in fifth place, defeating Celtic clubmate Jamie Morrissey [17/32] 3-1 (11-5, 11-6, 9-11, 11-8) in their play-off.
Elsewhere, Sutton’s Eoin O’Brien [17/32], the Junior Nationals runner-up, finished 11th and Belfast’s Josh Archer [9/16] was 14th. Sutton’s Liam Mahony [17/32] finished 17th, Mount Pleasant’s Ridit Thapar [17/32] came 21st, Celtic’s Alfie Knox [17/32] was 23rd, Leo Heron [17/32] of Windsor was 27th and Celtic’s Tom Hardiman [33/64] was 33rd.
GU13: Ireland had four players entered in this 15-player event, with Mount Pleasant’s Bridget Whitcomb [5/8], who was fifth at the Irish Junior Nationals, reaching the quarter-finals and ultimately finishing in sixth place. Sutton’s Faye Ring [9/16] came ninth, Celtic’s Daisy Morrissey [9/16], the Junior Nationals runner-up, was 13th and Windsor’s Sofia Heron [9/16] came 15th.
BU15: Mount Pleasant’s Michael Lai [9/16], the Junior Nationals champion, finished ninth in the 63-player event. Sutton’s John Quigley [17/32], last weekend’s runner-up in Cork, was 35th, with club colleagues Harry Yeomans [17/32] coming 54th and Archit Ajay [33/64] 57th.
GU15: Ireland had four players in the 28-player event, with Zoë Nyhan, the Junior Nationals runner-up from Mount Pleasant, seeded 9/16 and finishing 19th. Her club colleague, Raghad Aboelela [17/32], who was fourth at the Nationals, placed 23rd. Nationals third-place finisher, Saibh Darcy of Sutton, was 25th, with fellow Suttonian Esme Ring [17/32] coming in 26th.
BU17: Ireland’s five-strong entry list in the 72-player event was headed up by Christian Dromgoole [3/4], the BU19 Nationals runner-up. He finished 18th in Germany, with Celtic’s Adam Power [33/64] coming joint 36th. Sutton’s Samuel Hann [33/64] finished joint 42nd, Celtic’s Nathan Walsh [Q] was joint 50th with the overseas affiliated Vinny Knaggs joint 67th.
GU17: Highfield’s Maggie Jones [17/32], who came third at the Nationals, placed 11th in the 21-player Hamburg event.
BU19: New Nationals champions, Aaron Knox [9/16] of Celtic, finished 13th in the 54-player draw, Sutton duo Tyler Dromgoole [17/32] and Advik Ajay [33/64] came 29th and 40th, with Fitzwilliam’s Frank O’Flynn [33/64] coming joint 50th.
GU19: The 29-player event had four Irish entrants, and it culminated in Belfast’s Shriya Drawid [9/16] repeating her Nationals final win over Sutton’s Zoe Yeomans [9/16] in their 15th-place play-off, winning 3-1 (11-5, 14-12, 2-11, 11-5].
Another all-Irish play-off for 25th place went the way of Mount Pleasant’s Riley Slade [17/32] 3-2 [11-8, 5-11, 11-6, 5-11, 11-6) against Sutton’s Isabel Fallon [17/32].
Ireland’s top four squash players – Senior Nationals champions Hannah Craig and Sam Buckley and runners-up Breanne Flynn and Conor Moran – are set to return to court in the coming weeks following their recent exploits at Fitzwilliam.
A thrilling women’s final was won 3-2 by the defending champion, Craig from Lisburn, against Flynn from Sutton, while Buckley was a clinical 3-0 winner over Moran in the men’s decider to regain the title he lost to his Sutton clubmate 12 months earlier.
Craig, the PSA women’s No.66, resumes her activity on the World Events circuit next Wednesday at the Steel City Open in Pittsburgh where she has been drawn against Ainaa Amani, the No.57 from Malaysia.
She is also registered for the Calgary Squash Week. Seeded No.8, she will play either Kiera Marshall, the No.81 from England, or Helen Tang, the No.91 from Hong Kong China, in round two on March 13th.
Switching to the Challenger Events circuit, Buckley, the current PSA men’s No.100, will be on court at the Odense Open in Denmark on March 3rd, taking on Yusuf Thani of Bahrain, the PSA No.227.
He is also entered in the Krueger Open in Stockholm, starting with a round two match on March 19th.
Moran, the PSA No.148, will be in action a day earlier at the Krueger Open, as he has been drawn in round one versus Wailok To, the No.218 from Hong Kong China.
Before that, he will play in two other tournaments, starting next Tuesday at the Poznan Open in Poland against Cesar Segundo Corona, the No.167 from Mexico.
He is also entered in the Mozart Open in Salzburg, opening against Benjamin Aubert, the No.178 from France, on March 5th.
Moran, the men’s No.4 seed in Austria, will be joined at the event by Flynn, the women’s No.106, who has been seeded No.1, but her March 5th round two opponent has still to be determined.
Flynn is back on court next Friday in round two of the Edinburgh Open. Seeded No.2, she is drawn to play either Robyn McAlpine, the No.200 from Scotland, or Ella Bannister.
Other Irish players taking part in Edinburgh are Sutton’s Oisin Logan, the PSA No.404. Fourth at the recent men’s Irish Senior Nationals, he has an opener next Thursday against Lukasz Marcinkowski, the No.407 from Poland.
Meanwhile, Hannah McGugan, the PSA No.225 who finished third in the women’s Irish Senior Nationals, will also feature on Thursday in the Scottish capital against a yet-to-be-named round one opponent.
Another circuit match to look out for is on March 3rd, where Aaron Allpress, the men’s No.215, will take on Leo Chung, the No.119 from Hong Kong China, in the Odense Open first round.
Squash Ireland is looking forward to the latest Women in Sport (WIS) Week, the annual Sport Ireland initiative supported by NGBs – including Squash Ireland – LSPs and other funded bodies.
Taking place from March 2nd-8th, Sport Ireland’s theme for 2026 is ‘Same Energy’, challenging us to ask whether we are bringing the same energy, excitement, commitment and visibility to women’s sport or women in sport as we do to men’s sport or men in sport.
First held in March 2021 and repeated every March since, WIS Week is a significant and successful celebration and promotion, enhancing the visibility of women’s sport and women in sport.
The aim of Women in Sport Week is to:
Many of you have activities planned for Women in Sport Week, be that your regular women’s playing night, girls-only coaching sessions, HIIT Squash programmes and one-day social blitzes.
For clubs that may not have any specific activities planned during this week, this is your chance gather women together for an event that celebrates their contribution to squash, in whatever form that may occur. We are ready to help you with this if you would like to get in touch.
Sport Ireland’s theme and social media hashtag for WIS Week 2026 is #SameEnergy – and we would love to see this reflected in squash club social coverage during WIS Week.
For all clubs that commit to an activity during this week, we would like you to tag Squash Ireland on all available social media platforms and to email pictures and reels of your activities to us at [email protected] and [email protected] using the #SameEnergy hashtag.
Remember, Women in Sport week culminates in International Women’s Day on March 8th, which would be a perfect highlight to cap a strong week of female participation in squash.
If you have a female club president or club officer, we would love to see her highlighted. If you have a female referee that supports the club in delivering squash, we’d like to hear about her.
If you have a junior girls training group, we’d love to see them; if you have a fabulous female coach, we’d love to highlight her work; and if you have a great group of women playing regularly, we’d love to show them off.
All clubs that contribute to a showcase of women’s participation in squash will be entered into a draw for a club financial booster award to allow you to continue your good work in this area.
New U19 Junior Nationals champions Aaron Knox and Shriya Drawid are part of a 35-strong Irish contingent registered for this weekend’s German Junior Open in Hamburg, a travel list that also includes BU15 champion Michael Lai and BU13 winner Harry Knox.
Celtic’s Aaron Knox and Belfast’s Drawid came out on top in their respective Nationals finals last Sunday at Sunday’s Well, with Mount Pleasant’s Lai and Harry Knox topping the podium over at Highfield.
This quartet will be joined at the 327-player, eight-event gold status European tournament by several other Irish Nationals medallists, including seven runners-ups.
Listed to feature are Sutton four of BU19 runner-up Christian Dromgoole, Zoe Yeomans (GU19), John Quigley (BU15) and Eoin O’Brien (BU13) along with the Celtic duo Nathan Walsh (the BU17 finalist originally from Freshford) and Daisy Morrissey (GU13), and Mount Pleasant’s Zoë Nyhan (GU15).
There are also several bronze medallists from Cork last Sunday on the start list, including Fitzwilliam’s Frank O’Flynn (BU19), Celtic’s Adam Power (BU17), Highfield’s Maggie Jones (GU17), Sutton pair Harry Yeomans (BU15) and Saibh Darcy (GU15) and Belfast’s Josh Archer (BU13).
The action at the four-day tournament gets underway at 3pm German time, and the first two Irish players on court will be Walsh, who takes on Charles Cimino of France, and Sutton’s Vinny Knaggs against Taymor Akybaev in the BU17 qualification B quarter-finals.
They will be followed on court at 3:35pm local time by Sutton’s Advik Ajay, Irish champion Aaron Knox and O’Flynn, who are playing BU19 round of 64 matches.
Harry Knox and Dromgoole are Ireland’s highest-seeded entries for the tournament at the Sportwerk venue, with Knox named the BU13 No.1 and Dromgoole listed as a 3/4 seed in the BU17.
Players from six clubs won Irish Junior Nationals titles on Sunday in Cork. Belfast, Celtic, Mount Pleasant and Sutton took home two titles each, with Limerick and Galway also taking a top spot on the podium at the 10-event tournament played across three days at Sunday’s Well and Highfield.
Two 2025 winners in Galway – Limerick’s Ruby Carroll and Sutton’s Danny Jones – retained their champion status. Carroll won last year’s GU13 title as the fifth seed and she made it a double at that age-grade, this time as the No.1 seed.
Celtic’s Daisy Morrissey, last year’s third-place finisher, showed her prowess by taking out Mount Pleasant’s Aurora McDonnell in the semi-finals, but she had no answer to Carroll’s potent play in a final that the defending champion won 3-0 three months after the same result was the outcome of their Irish Junior Open final clash at Sutton.
The Limerick girl’s weekend got even better after her Nationals victory as she soon learned that she was chosen as Squash Ireland’s Junior Player of the Year, an award presented to her by CEO Scott Graham and junior development coach Michael Conroy [Carroll is pictured above, second from right, with Celtic pair Morrissey and English, and CEO Graham after the GU13 trophy presentation].
While Carroll’s Nationals title double came at GU13, Sutton’s Jones enjoyed the distinction of a double at different age grades. He defeated Nathan Walsh, the Celtic player from Freshford, in a five-game BU15 final feast 12 months ago and after the pair won through to the BU17 decider, the champion was a 3-0 winner on this occasion.
Seeded as No.2, Jones was one of four non-top-seeded players to win a title in Cork. Another No.2, Mount Pleasant’s Anna Maria Deak, defeated the No. 1-rated, Georgie Ryan of Windsor, in a thrilling GU11 five-setter.
The result was 3-0 in the GU15 final, with the No.2, Gabby Curran of Belfast, defeating the No.1, Zoë Nyhan of Mount Pleasant. This outcome was a reversal of the 3-0 win for Nyhan in the 2025 final between the two players.
The other seeding upset was in the GU19 where Belfast’s Shriya Drawid, the No.3 rank, was a 3-1 final winner over No.1 Zoe Yeomans of Sutton in a tightly contested match.
Drawid was a beaten quarter-finalist last year, losing out to eventual champion Ella Erickson, but her run to this year’s final included a 3-0 box win over Ella Walsh, the No.2 seed from Sutton, who was the 2025 runner-up.
A No.1 seed who certainly delivered the goods was Celtic’s Aaron Knox in the BU19, rounding off his campaign with a 3-1 win over Christian Dromgoole, the No.2 from Sutton, in a terrifically entertaining decider.
The pair had last year contested the third-place play-off, with Knox winning 3-0, but Sunday’s rematch at Sunday’s Well was a far tighter affair with some compelling passages of all-court play.
It included Dromgoole, last weekend’s Irish Senior Nationals Men’s B title winner, fighting off several champ balls before eventually losing out in the fourth.
Knox’s title win was in keeping with the pattern of players who finished down the rankings last year in their age-grade stepping up this time around as the No.1 seeds and succeeding.
Like Knox, Mount Pleasant’s Michael Lai finished third in the 2025, but triumphed 12 months later as the BU15 No.1, defeating Sutton’s John Quigley 3-0 in their box decider.
Harry Knox, last month’s BU13 Czech Open champion, finished runner-up last year at the Nationals when seeded No.2. Now, returning as No.1, he took the BU13 title with a 3-1 win over Sutton’s Eoin O’Brien, who had gone one game up in their exciting match.
Galway’s Conor Mullery, the BU11 top seed, clinched his title by winning the box decider 3-0 versus Celtic’s Dylan Dunphy, the No.2 seed who started out at Dunhill. The success highlighted Mullery’s excellent progress as he finished sixth a year ago.
Meanwhile, it was an all-Sutton affair at GU17 where No.1 Lucy Walsh defeated clubmate Zoë Sheridan, the No.2, 3-0 in their final.
IRISH JUNIOR NATIONALS 2026
BU19 FINAL: Celtic’s Aaron Knox [1] WON 3-1 (11-4, 10-12, 11-5, 11-9) v Sutton’s Christian Dromgoole [2];
Third-place play-off: Fitzwilliam’s Frank O’Flynn [4] WON 3-2 (3-11, 6-11, 12-10, 11-5, 11-6) v Sutton’s Tyler Dromgoole
GU19 FINAL: Belfast’s Shriya Drawid [3] WON 3-1 (9-11, 11-7, 11-7, 12-10) v Sutton’s Zoe Yeomans [1];
Third-place play-off: Sutton’s Rebecca Jackson [5] WALKOVER v Sutton’s Ella Walsh [2]
BU17 FINAL: Sutton’s Danny Jones [2] WON 3-0 (11-7, 11-6, 11-7) v Freshford’s Nathan Walsh [4];
Third-place play-off: Celtic’s Adam Power [1] WON 3-0 (11-6, 11-5, 11-5) v Sutton’s Samuel Hann (3)
GU17 FINAL: Sutton’s Lucy Walsh [1] WON 3-0 (11-5, 11-8, 11-7) v Sutton’s Zoë Sheridan [2];
Third-place play-off: Highfield’s Maggie Jones [3] WON (3-0 v 11-5, 11-9, 11-7) v Mount Pleasant’s Ashrakat Elmahgoub [4]
BU15 BOX DECIDER: Mount Pleasant’s Michael Lai [1] WON 3-0 (11-7, 11-9, 11-5) v Sutton’s John Quigley [2];
Third: Sutton’s Harry Yeomans [4], Fourth: Celtic’s Jamie Morrissey [3
GU15 FINAL: Belfast’s Gabby Curran [2] WON 3-0 (11-9, 11-5, 11-5) v Mount Pleasant’s Zoë Nyhan [1];
Third-place play-off: Sutton’s Saibh Darcy [3] WON 3-1 (11-6, 7-11, 11-6, 11-7) v Mount Pleasant’s Raghad Aboelala [5]
BU13 FINAL: Celtic’s Harry Knox [1] WON 3-1 (11-13, 11-3, 11-8, 11-8) v Sutton’s Eoin O’Brien [2];
Third-place play-off: Belfast’s Josh Archer [3] WON 3-0 (11-1, 11-6, 11-9) v Mount Pleasant’s Ailong Chen [5]
GU13 FINAL: Limerick’s Ruby Carroll [1] WON 3-0 (11-2, 11-4, 11-4) v Celtic’s Daisy Morrissey [2];
Third-place play-off: Celtic’s Caoimhe English [4] WON 3-1 (7-11, 11-3, 11-9, 11-4) v Mount Pleasant’s Aurora McDonnell [3]
BU11 BOX DECIDER: Galway’s Conor Mullery [1] WON 3-0 v (11-1, 11-8, 11-4) v Dunhill’s Dylan Dunphy [2];
Third: Ballypatrick’s Zach Kelly [4]; Fourth: Galway’s Harvey Coyne [6]
GU11 FINAL: Mount Pleasant’s Anna Maria Deak [2] WON 3-2 (11-9, 6-11, 11-13, 11-4, 11-7) v Windsor’s Georgie Ryan [1];
Third-place play-off: Fitzwilliam’s Jessica O’Gorman [5] WON 3-2 (3-11, 10-12, 11-8, 11-9, 11-7) v Windsor’s Sofia Heron [3]
Irish squash has lost one of its standard bearers with the recent passing of Geraldine Barniville (née Houlihan), an indomitable player who was a member of the Ireland team that won the bronze medal at the 1974 World Championships – writes Ann Sheppard.
Capped 75 times by Ireland, she was also on the 1983 team that finished fourth at the Worlds and the teams that won 10 silver medals in the European Championships from 1978 to 1983. These achievements coined the slogan for Irish women’s squash – Squash players boast second in Europe and fourth in the World.
Geraldine also played in 10 Federation Cup (now Billie Jean Cup) tennis matches, was Irish No.1 from 1965 to 1974 and beat Virginia Wade (the 1997 Wimbledon champion) along the way.
Born in 1942 and a native of Birr, Co Offaly, Geraldine took to tennis at a young age before getting introduced to squash as a medical student at Dublin’s Mater Hospital.
She started to play more regularly in the early 1970s, was on the Irish team by 1972 and became Irish champion in 1974.
She interrupted a long-established Ulster dominance of Irish women’s squash – featuring Dorothy Boyd, Barbara Sanderson, Julie Morrison, Stephanie Lynas, Dorothy Armstrong and Irene Hewitt – and caused a stir after sewing a shamrock to a pillowcase as only a Union Jack was provided for the flag ceremony at an international event.
Geraldine joined Dorothy Armstrong and Irene Hewitt as the top three Irish players for well over a decade.
Unlike tennis, she was allowed play on men’s squash teams in the Leinster League. She held her own in the Premier League, playing for the Coombe, Old Belvedere and Leopardstown. Many a good Leinster male player’s pride was wounded but, in truth, it was no shame to be beaten by Geraldine.
She was held in high esteem by all her competitors, men and women, at home and also on the international circuit. She also played for Nomads, the Leinster ladies’ team that played in the men’s third division, and helped keep the team to its middle ranking.
However, after complaints from male opponents that she was too good, she was no longer allowed to continue playing at this level and had to confine herself to Premier men’s only.
She never played in the women’s league except for the inaugural Ivy Hadden Memorial Cup competition. Ivy was the first female coach in Leinster and a good friend of Geraldine. Geraldine played with Old Belvedere who, needless to say, claimed the trophy.
She also participated in Leinster training. As an admirer of tennis champion Martina Navratilova, who put a lot of emphasis on fitness, Geraldine did likewise and other members of the Leinster training squad always hoped that coach Alan Jerrold wouldn’t put them on the court with her as they would be put through the most rigorous and, at times, excruciating workout.
She would also bring along her calipers to check the squad’s body fat, measuring the loose flesh on the upper arm. She settled for nothing less than the best from herself and those on teams with her, driving on both Leinster and Ireland by example.
When she stopped playing competitively in the mid-1980s, she was instrumental in team preparation. Players had rigorous schedules they had to adhere to and were introduced to sports medics, sports physios, sports psychologists and sports nutritionists.
This was all unheard of in the world of squash five years earlier but the players now had to meet with Geraldine regularly to account for themselves. Becoming a top squash player was not for the faint-hearted, but Geraldine was always generous with her time and expertise with the top squash athletes, and she herself went on to do a Master’s in Sports Medicine at Trinity.
It wasn’t only as a player that Geraldine was a trailblazer. Aside from being the first to promote serious squash fitness training for women, she was instrumental in securing the amalgamation of the men and women’s associations and became Irish Squash’s first president.
She was also the first woman president of Leinster Squash and the first woman to become a member of the all-male Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis club.
She was the go-to person both for Irish Squash and World Squash on anti-doping and represented World Squash on WADA. She also gave seminars at World Squash events for players on women’s health.
After squash, cycling became her passion and she completed many grueling maracycles at home and abroad.
Geraldine gave her all to everything she took on. She was a competitive high achiever who was determined and hardworking.
She was also an independent thinker, a straight talker and a person of high integrity. She loved good conversation, was extremely kind and caring and was a great pal.
Squash Ireland extends its condolences to her sons David, Tim and Nick and to her brother Jim and sister Susan. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam.
Six brand new coaches and one coach tutor-in-training were taken through their Introduction to Coaching paces by Squash Ireland tutor Kieran Doherty at Belfast Boat Club last weekend.
Over a full day, Doherty took the group through the fundamentals of coaching squash for diverse audiences, including children and adult beginners.
This brand-new fundamental coaching award is a complete rewrite of Squash Ireland’s Leaders Course and brings the opening step on the coaching pathway fully into line with the Sport Ireland coach development pathway for Ireland.
Craig McCourtney, the Sport Ireland coach development officer, was in attendance in Belfast along with Niall Jackman, Squash Ireland’s Northern Ireland development officer and Dave Broderick, the Squash Ireland coach education lead.
Squash Ireland wish the very best of luck to the new coaches as they begin their club assignments and look forward to seeing them back with us for future learning opportunities on the Squash Ireland coaching pathway.
We also look forward to bringing this event around the country in 2026 and helping aspiring club coaches to begin their coaching journey.
Squash Ireland CEO Scott Graham said: “From our recent club survey, we recognised a strong theme from our club network around increasing availability and presence of grassroots coaches within the squash community who can empower their own clubs to deliver training opportunities for new players of all ages, and to upskill existing coaches to higher-level awards on our coaching pathway.
“The brand new Introduction to Coaching Squash course represents an important first step on the coaching journey for players, parents, teachers and club members across the country.
“We hope this is the start of an expansive nationwide programme that brings continuous coach development to all four provinces in the years ahead.”
Squash Ireland is excited to share a nationwide competition in partnership with SquashLevels, giving members the chance to win some fantastic squash prizes.
SquashLevels allows players to track match history and performance, compare levels, follow club rankings and gain personalised insights with integration into SquashSkills coaching content.
By registering for a FREE SquashLevels account, members will be automatically entered into a random prize draw.
We encourage all members to get involved and take advantage of this great opportunity.
What you can win:
First Prize
• Premium Karakal squash racket
• 12-Month SquashLevels Platinum Membership
• 6-Month SquashSkills Subscription
• 1-Month SquashTV Pass
Second Prize
• 6-Month SquashLevels Platinum Membership
• 6-Month SquashSkills Subscription
• 1-Month SquashTV Pass
Third Prize
• 3-Month SquashLevels Platinum Membership
• 3-Month SquashSkills Subscription
• 1-Month SquashTV Pass
How to enter: Register a FREE SquashLevels account using the link below You’ll be automatically entered into the prize draw. Three winners will be selected at random.
