Irish Blackball Association

The Southern Ireland Pool Federation (SIPF) has been running local leagues since 1981 with over 40 clubs in the Dublin area alone, including the Ballymun Club.  But in 1990 the chairperson, Martin Kirwan (as seen on the left), along with  Jim McCabe,  Gerry Bergen and Sylvester Byrne established its international identity in order to promote good relations between Northern and Southern Irish Pool players. Since then, SIPF has grown in stature and has been sending teams to National and International events throughout Europe for almost two decades now.

Currently, SIPF has 1200 members  registered with the organisation, many of whom are from the Dublin 9 and 11 areas, aged from 10 to 25 years.  At peak times in the history of SIPF, there could be over 500 people playing in the local and super leagues, with over 40 teams of up to 14 people on each playing at different levels, juniors, youths and seniors.  Today there are 18 counties involved in SIPF.

However, since the closure of the pool hall in Ballymun in 2004, the level of home activity has decreased for the Ballymun Club somewhat, particularly amongst young people. The large public pool hall could accommodate the activities of SIPF 7 days a week on 15 tables, and relatively low levels of supervision were required because they were in a controlled environment. 

At present there are still around 140 active members weekly, thanks to the availability of St. Pappins Hall which is situated on the northern edge of Ballymun.  But while accessible, it is not ideal, as Martin Kirwan explains: “Its future is uncertain in the regeneration now going on in Ballymun, but either way it’s small, just 2 rooms, and we share it with a number of other clubs and organisations running diverse activities over the week, including the boxing club, which means we have to remove and store our 5 tables and equipment everytime they are not in use”.  Martin adds that there’s just not enough room for the proper instruction of the young and eager who make up about a third of the active members at present.  Previously they could accommodate up to 75 young people per instructional session, now they can only cater for about 25-30.

In addition, SIPF has a very good relationship with training centres (such as St. Michael’s House) working with people with special needs.  “We have organised the special needs league for St. Michael’s House for nearly 8 years”, say Martin, “We also used to be part of skills training programmes for the centres in Santry Lane, Glasnevin and Charles Street.   At present, we organise 3 major special needs tournaments a year between SIPF, Northern Ireland and England.  But at local level we’ve practically no people with special needs left in the organisation, (juniors nor seniors), because we just can’t accommodate them anymore.”  At any time, SIPF used to be able to work with between 20-28 people per training centre.

Not to be deterred however, SIPF has continued to develop and since the year 2000 it has put particular energies into developing the professional teams of 21 years plus.  Currently it has around 60 members who are now playing at the very highest level in the professional end of the game, while 140 of its members continue to play at a European/World level. “Many of these men and women have been active members since they were just youngsters within SIPF and it’s a joy to see them reach such a high standard in the game.  The only other county with this potential base is Scotland, and even their players come from a pool of 48 thousand members”, says Martin, “So relatively speaking, our statistics are up there with the best of teams in terms of the other major countries involved in the sport”.

 Mission Statement