To the everyday reader, the world of fishing may look like a male dominated sport, and with the rise of the great irish sports women such as Katie Taylor, Rachel Blackmore, Kellie Harrington(to name a few) we are beginning to look a little closer into sports, particularly minority sports, and giving credit to our women who are not only taking part, but taking over!
With that being said, we cannot but recognize the Irish Ladies Fly Fishing team representing Ireland this May!
The Irish Ladies Flyfishing Association was founded in 1990 by Anne Geary of Pontoon Bridge Hotel Foxford Co. Mayo. Anne took this brave step to support women who wished to fish and represent their country. The aim of the Association is to encourage lady anglers to participate in fishing events, to join angling clubs and in general promote ladies angling.
The Association organise fishing and social events throughout the year all over the country. Each year the Association helps to fund a team to compete in the Ladies International, against teams from England, Scotland and Wales. A series of four trials are used to select the team to represent Ireland at the Ladies International Flyfishing Championship. The ILFA takes great pride in Team Ireland 22, having won gold in 2009 and 2013, this year the team are “ going for Gold”. The 13 ladies from all parts of Ireland, will travel to Lake of Menteith in Scotland on 23rd-26th May 2022 and face into tough competition. The Ladies have held training days on local lakes and are feeling ready for the challenge. The team is captained this year by the youngest woman to ever do so, Alhma McDonnell, Almha has been flyfishing since 2012 and already holds experience at international level. Almha was a member of the Irish Youth team in 2017 and gained her first cap with the irish ladies in 2018.
The Management team this year includes Brian Kerr(Team Coach) Kevin Dinning(Team Manager) Mark Dermott (fly-tyer).
Wishing the Irish Ladies Fly Fishing Team 2022 The best of luck and for all enquiries you can contact ILFA below.
https://www.irishladiesflyfishing.com/
Facebook (Email) [email protected]
PRO Irene Tiernan
