Sunday 6th June 2021 will go down in the history books as the Republic of Ireland Ladies Snooker Association (RILSA) and Snooker Billiards Ireland (SBI) came together in a partnership after a number of years in negotiations with each other and Sport Ireland.
This new partnership agreement that was signed and adopted at the new proposed Snooker Billiards Ireland Academy in Carlow by representatives of the newly formed working group made up of Annette Newman President/Treasurer of RILSA, Dan Carroll Chairman of RILSA, Dave Earle Secretary of RILSA, Dylan Rees Chairman SBI, Derek Kiely Secretary of SBI and Tom O’Driscoll Players Rep of SBI.
The Republic of Ireland Ladies Snooker Association are now recognised by Sport Ireland and Snooker Billiards Ireland as the National Independent body responsible for fostering, developing, promoting female cue sports in Ireland.
Snooker Billiards Ireland will support RILSA as both Associations work together in advancement of Irish snooker, in particular the development and delivery of female cue sports.
RILSA will help to increase participation and develop Disability cue sports in Ireland through their member schools as they have been running Special Needs Championships since 2014 along with the support of Stars Academy Ireland where the National Special Needs Championship for boy’s are played each year since 2014.
We look forward to a very successful partnership with SBI and we thank Dylan, Derek and Tom for their input and support. Thanks to Shane Califf head of NGB’s at Sport Ireland and Melanie for their help and support
Thanks to the Board of RILSA who worked tirelessly over the past number of years, attending meetings to help ensure this agreement would become a reality, Annette Newman, Tina Keogh, Margaret Browne, Dave Earle, Dr Gerard Colleran, Valerie Maloney and Stephanie Foley and all who have given of their time and energy to see through a successful outcome for female cue sports.
