The Irish Amateur Championship (occasionally known as the Irish National Championship) is an annual
snooker
Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...
competition played in
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
and is the highest ranking amateur event in Ireland.
History
The competition was first established back in 1927 which was won by T.H. Fayrey. The title is currently held by Brendan O'Donoghue, who has won the competition a record five times in the modern era.
Many former champions have gone on to play on the
world tour such as
Colm Gilcreest
Colm Gilcreest is an Irish former professional snooker player from Kilmainhamwood.
Career history
He is a former Irish champion. In the 2000 World Snooker Championship Gilcreest won six games against Philip Seaton, Simon Bedford, Robin Hull, ...
,
David Morris,
Vincent Muldoon
Vincent Muldoon (born 12 October 1990) is an Irish former professional snooker player. After being a successful junior player (he was a European Under-19 Championship finalist in 2007), he became a professional in 2008. Despite some good perform ...
,
Brendan O'Donoghue
Brendan O'Donoghue (born 15 December 1982 in Nenagh, Tipperary) is an Irish former professional snooker player.
Career
O'Donoghue became the Irish nominee for 2009–10 season after he topped the Irish national standings by defeating John To ...
,
Rodney Goggins and, most notably, twice winner
Ken Doherty. He went on to become the only former Irish champion to win the
World Snooker Championship in
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
, when he ended
Stephen Hendry's run of five consecutive wins.
Winners
References
{{National amateur snooker championships
Snooker amateur competitions
Recurring sporting events established in 1927
Snooker competitions in Ireland
1927 establishments in Ireland