Darndale National School Dublin is one of our many member schools across Ireland who accepted 6 fold up tables where the young students have access to cue sports. This school caters for 92 girls
We were delighted to be able to facilitate the school with tables, giving the students access to cue sports. The girls at the School are given equal access to the snooker tables.
World Snooker Coach Dan Carroll held many coaching sessions at the school over the past 7 years, the interest among young girls was fantastic. The boys and girls mixed very well playing snooker and learning the basics of setting up the balls, the value of each ball and adding scores which really helped them.
Dan made sure that everyone playing had equal opportunity to play and learn while making it fun at the same time. At the end of each year programme, all the students could set up the balls, know their value and add breaks.
Due to the Coved situation, the school has not been able to access the table over the past year or so but they are really looking forward to getting back to playing the sport soon.
These initiatives by RILSA to get cue sports into schools will eventually change the perception among young people that both females and males can play such sports on a level playing field.
As part of our National Development plan, we have made great progress in seeing participation among young girls increase over the past 8 years.
Part of our 10 year plan is to set up a coaching programme within our member schools where the students can learn the basics.
Our main objective is to step up participation and awareness among young girls and encourage them to play cue sports with the knowledge that the Republic of Ireland Ladies Snooker Association are there to help and support all the way, should they wish to advance through the levels within the Association.
While many of our girls play within the school domain, some have ventured out to play competitively at National Intermediate and Amateur events that are available to them.
Our National Primary School Championship, National U21 Championship and National Special Needs Championship have been well attended and supported over the past 8 years along with events at County level.
We hope to get this school and many others back up and running by the end of 2021.
This is a previous post and photos prior to covid-19
