The Irish Ladies Fly Fishing Association (ILFA) is taking part in the 2014 International Ladies Fly-fishing Championship being hosted by Wales in a few weeks.
The Championship is being held on the Llyn Trawsfynydd, in north Wales and the competition day will be Thursday 22nd May.
The team will be travelling on Saturday 17th May and will be working hard for the four days prior to the competition day.
Madeleine Kelly, ILFA Chairman, said
‘We are really excited to be going to Wales this year. The country-side in north Wales is so lovely and we’ve visited Llyn Trawsfynydd on a previous occasion when we did very well so we have high expectations of ourselves. We’ve only been able to give ourselves four practice days in order to get to know the lake so we will definitely be working very hard. We’d have loved to have gone for longer but our finances don’t allow it.’
The Irish Team who are from all over Ireland have a wealth of experience. The team will be captained by Julie Gerry from Maynooth in Co. Kildare who has twelve caps and has carried out a captain’s role on four previous occasions including leading her team to the gold position in Co Kerry in 2013.
The team members are:
- Julie Gerry, Captain, Maynooth, Co. Kildare
- Madeleine Kelly, Vice-Captain, Hilltown, Co. Down
- Linda Straghan, Derryhennett, Co. Armagh
- Pat Byrne, Ballymore Eustace, Co. Kildare
- Pauline McClenaghan, Derry City
- Cher McCrave, Rathfarnam, Co. Dublin
- Jenny Casey, Clane Co. Kildare
- Susan Brown, Lisburn, Co. Antrim
- Julie McGeever, Freshford, Co. Kilkenny
- Lisa O’Hagan, Dundalk, Co. Louth
- Hubert Smith, Team Coach, Dundalk, Co Louth
- Mick McShane, Fly-tyer, Dundalk, Co Louth
Julie Gerry, Team Captain, said
‘There are four new-caps with us this year. It’s great to be able to attract new women into the Association and to be able to give them the experience of representing Ireland at this level. Everyone is excited and we have high hopes of doing well. This year for the first time we have two Dundalk men as our Coach & Fly-tyer. We have been working hard with them already including a training session at Courtlough. Being part of this team is an excellent way to improve angling skills. I’d recommend it to any woman who is interested in fly-fishing’
How to get involved
Any woman who is interested in being part of the 2015 team is invited to take part in the team selection trial happening at Carrigavantry in Co Wexford on Sunday 4th May. Please visit www.irishladiesflyfishing.com for more information
This will be the second of the four trials which will be used to select the Irish Team for the International Ladies Flyfishing Championships in 2015 which will happen in England
