The Republic of Ireland Ladies Snooker Association initiated their Official Coaching Panel in 2014.
Previously a number of people were involved with coaching individuals within the Association over the years.
The late Larry Codd was very much involved with coaching our 7 times National Champion Julie Kelly from Wexford back in the late 80’s and 90’s. The late Christopher Carroll a brother of our first RILSA President Gloria Ruane was the Official Appointed National Snooker Coach in the 80′ & 90’s. Christopher was invited to give a number of coaching sessions to RILSA members at the Crossguns Snooker Club in Dublin and was a great help indeed.
Tommy Goulding otherwise known as Mr Wiggle Waggle was very much involved with RILSA during the early years and gave many hours of his time freely to help develop the women’s standards and technique. Tommy was held in high esteem by everyone he came in contact with and the future development of cue sports coaching here in Ireland was mainly due to his input and great knowledge of the sport that many players both women & men had the great opportunity to meet and be coached by one of our greats.
In 2014 RILSA entered a new era in the development of the Association and player standards when a new panel of Coaches were appointed.
Dan Carroll was appointed Head Coach along with Annette Newman, Sandra Bryan, Martin Rossiter and Aidan Murray, who are accredited National Coaches through Coaching Ireland.
Annette Newman is the first Official Woman Snooker Coach in Ireland having completed the course in 2005. Her commitment and encouragement towards newcomers and young girls is fantastic as her input has kept many of our new members involved in the sport.
Some 10 years later Sandra Bryan was the 2nd woman to attain the accreditation along with Martin Rossiter. Both Sandra and Martin are very much involved with the Pool Association and encourage many players to take up cue sports.
Aidan Murray is the Appointed RILSA National Billiards Coach. Aidan has been to the forefront of developing our Women’s Billiards Section over the past 10 years. Aidan has a fantastic knowledge of Billiards and along with his great ability and patience with individuals wishing to take up billiards, its success is all down to Aidan.
RILSA has conducted many free coaching days for women & girls. Aidan Murray has held many billiard coaching evenings again all free for our members. Aidan completed a World Billiards Coaching Course and is Ireland’s only Professional Billiards Coach.
Dan Carroll completed the National Certificate in Coaching in 2011 followed in 2012 by completing the World Professional Certification in Sheffield under the guidance of Steve Davis and Terry Griffiths run by World Snooker.
Dan followed up on his Professional Coaching Certification by qualifying two years later as a Sports Psychologist.
Fin Ruane from Dublin and the Crossguns Snooker Club, recently joined the coaching team at RILSA. We are delighted to have Fin on board and he will certainly be a great asset to the organisation as we plan our next 5 to 10 years in developing our players.
As of June 2022, Fergal O’Brien one of our top professional players on tour joined RILSA as a coach and has already held a number of workshops to help our members improve their skills. We are delighted to have Fergal on board and part of the coaching team. Fergal completed a course with Chris Henry in Belgium and will continue his progression with the WPBSA in the near future.
On Thursday 30th November 2023 female Cue Sports Ireland conducted their first official Introductory Coaching Course for Females as part of our plan to increase the numbers of Female Coaches within the organisation and to further develop our initiative within our schools and colleges.
This course was a great success as two member schools the Holy Family Newbridge and Mountrath Community School Laois had two Teachers from each attend as they will receive tables in the near future where they will begin their promotions at grass root level to help young girls get involved in cue sports. Thanks to SB Ireland for their support and to Nora Stapleton of WIS at Sport Ireland for the funding to help us make this happen
Since the initial Introductory coaching course, more courses have been completed with teachers from Ballinabranna National School Carlow and St Leo’s All Girl School Carlow and FCJ Bunclody Wexford and a number of our player members bringing to our Organisation 20 Female Coaches along with 10 Assistant Female Coaches. All of these will help increase the numbers playing and will encourage more girls into cue sports in the future
We now have 20 Female Cue Sports Coaches and 10 assistant female coaches we will continue to increase this in the months and years ahead
LIST OF COACHES
Dan Carroll (World Snooker Coach)
Aidan Murray (World Billiards Coach)
Annette Newman (National Snooker Coach)
Sandra Bryan (National Snooker Coach)
Fin Ruane (World Snooker Coach)
Fergal O’Brien (World Snooker Coach)
Kathleen Reddy (Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Marie Condon (Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Miriam Scully (Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Anne Breen (Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Stephanie Foley (Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Valerie Maloney (Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Jackie Trulock (Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Veronica Hallahan (Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Ciara Doyle (Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Hilary Fitzgerald (Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Sinead Millward (Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Fiona Farrell (Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Liz Wynne (Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Hazel Mc Wey (Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Delia Keane (Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Niamh McConville (Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Joanna Ward (Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Jennifer Earle (Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Isabella Smith (Assistant Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Elsie Whelan (Assistant Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Anna Mulpeter (Assistant Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Roisin Douglas (Assistant Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Sadie Daly (Assistant Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Niamh Shannon (Assistant Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Aoife Martin (Assistant Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Sadhbh Simpson (Assistant Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Aoife Murphy (Assistant Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
Lily O’Connor (Assistant Introductory Level Coach in Snooker & Billiards)
