We have been receiving a number of enquiries about where in Ireland people can try curling. Sadly there are currently no ice rinks that support curling in Ireland and all Irish Curling on ice activities take place in Scotland. There is an exciting plan to deliver an ice rink in South Dublin supported by the OFI, Winter Sports Federations and Irish Curling. The potential development is near the planning stage and timelines suggest 2028 opening.

This clearly won’t satisfy the current interest generated by excellent Olympic coverage but please do contact us. We have in the past managed to get a squad of people over to Stranraer for a come and try session and that may be a possibility at some stage. in the meantime, look out for local Floor Curling opportunities as some of these exist in different areas of the country.

Team Ireland have reached the halfway point in their 4 Nations campaign in the tussle for trophies to be decided tomorrow, Sunday.

Friday night saw the team take on Wales men and women and Wales ran out winners in both games, 10-7 in the men’s match and 8-5 in the women’s giving them a 6 point lead.

On Saturday, our Celtic warriors took on England men and women in the early draw running out 7-1 winners in the men’s and 8-7 in the women’s games giving them a 14-7 lead overall

The afternoon session saw Ireland play Scotland’s men and women and with the men winning 12-3 and the women going down by a single point, 7-8, Ireland take an overall lead 19-11 into tomorrow’s mixed matches.

Meanwhile, it’s all hands to the pumps for babysitting duties as young Oran Young is passed around various folk – including Eoin who was doing a grand job!!

Team Ireland is heading to the annual 4 Nations competition against their Welsh, English and Scottish counterparts to compete for the Meikle Trophy (Wales), the Turnbull Trophy (England) and the Marshall Millennium Trophy (Scotland).

Players from as far as Calgary, Ontario, Dublin, East Kilbride, Edinburgh and Kelso (not an exhaustive list) meet up to do battle for the prestigious trophies in this excellent competitive and social event. the Irish Teams are as follows: Good luck everyone!!

4 Nations Teams, Kelso; Friday 23rd – Sunday 25^th  January 2026

Friday 1900 vs Wales; Men & Women

Saturday 0900 vs England; Men & Women

Saturday 1200 vs Scotland Men & Women

Sunday 0900 vs Wales Mixed

Sunday 1130 vs England Mixed

Sunday 1400 vs Scotland Mixed

Apologies from the editor for the lack of update on winners and losers so far in the ICA Bonspiel and Competitions calendar.

Opening Bonspiel
The season opened on 5th October with the opening bonspiel at Greenacres. A great turnout for the first outing of the season and we were delighted to welcome Niall McLoughlin for his ICA initiation…..(nothing sinister here – just his inaugural outing !!)
There were great games and the winning team were Neil Fyfe, Nina Clancy, Niall McLoughlin and Frances Donald

Fyfe Trophy / Irish Open Championship Hot on the heels of the opening bonspiel was the Fyfe Trophy – donated by the Fyfe family in memory of John and Isobel – staunch supporters and participants for many years. The format was 4 x 4-end games spread over the day played on a schenkel basis. A great day was had by all and especially as we were able to welcome George Elliot, Ian Pringle and Michael Shaw for their first appearances as well as guests, Neil Murray and Madge Christie. Typically enough, three of them (sorry Neil and Ian) were on the medal podium where Gold, Silver and Bronze medals were awarded by Alastair Fyfe – representing the Fyfe family.

Winter Bonspiel at Hamilton: We headed to Lanarkshire Ice Rink for the winter bonspiel with 4 teams contesting for the spoils. In an incredibly tight finish, both sheets ended up with a winner 6-5, by 1 shot (Neil Fyfe on Sheet A and Bill Gray on B). Bill and his team ran out winners by virtue of having 1 end more. This was followed by an EGM called to help further some of our governance changes and it was great to see David Pakosh from Calgary on the Zoom call.

The competition between Irish Curlers and the Ardrossan Castle Curling Club has a long history dating back to 1861. On Sunday, the ICA team of Tommy Campbell, Christine Furey, Alison Barr and Clare McCormick set out to retain the Ardrossan – Belfast Trophy. They faced off against an Ardrossan team, skipped by Gordon Christie.

The ICA team started strongly leading 5-1 after three ends with Ardossan struggling with the speed of the ice. However, as they got their draw weight they picked up a 2 in the fourth end and a 4 in the 6th end to lead 7-6. The final end was tense with Tommy and his team leading 8-7 without the hammer. With all to play for, both teams produced some top class curling. With his last stone Tommy played a perfectly weighted double raise onto the button. This left Gordon with a very tricky run back to take the game to an extra end. The run back was unsuccessful and the ICA retained the trophy with a 9-7 victory.

Carolyn Hibberd, one of the founding members of the ICA, presented the trophy to the winning team. She said “It was an honour the present the Trophy to Ireland.”

The Irish men’s team played Poland in their semi-final this morning in Ostersund, Sweden with a place in the A league at stake. The team reported: “A super close game that saw the teams go into the 5th end break tied at 3 each. Poland were forced to a single in the 8th to go up 4-3. A scrappy 9th end led to Poland stealing a 2 and going into the final end with a 6-3 lead. The 10th end was a messy affair. Skip John Wilson attempted a peel weight treble take out that left 4 yellow stones in the house. However, one red remained and Poland took victory.”

There is still a bronze medal to be won and they play Spain at 1.30pm UK time. Best of luck boys!!

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A really nip and tuck game against Poland this afternoon saw Ireland lose 5-7.

This result unfortunately see Ireland exit the world Mixed Championships.

They finished the round robin stage ranked 4th in group B and 20th overall out of 39 participating countries.

While the Mixed team are battling it out in Aberdeen, we held our opening bonspiel on Sunday at Greenacres. Six teams contested the perpetual trophy and a modest prize. Scores of +3, +6 were recorded but the winners with +7 were our hotshot U17’s from Hamilton with new member Erin Roche and her guest teammates Jennifer Ward and Emily Haggart along with dad Tom Roche. Well done to them and many thanks to all who came – especially the guest players. The day had everything including the past Pres Eoin literally flying on his new shoes…not sure bright red is a legit Irish colour but…