Although rumours of a Quidditch movie made on location in Wexford are far from true, Quidditch is making its way into Ireland. At present there are at least five active teams in the country. Most are associated with universities, much like how the sport sprung up in America. Dublin city alone has three teams (DIT?), some more active than others, which includes the DCU Dementors and the only community team Dublin Draoichta Dragons.
All Parts of the Country
Dublin is well covered between the bigger university teams and the community team but there are teams starting to come together in other parts of the country and in northern Ireland. In particular, Irish Quidditch owes a debt of gratitude to the Galway Grindelows of NUI Galway. What is most exciting however is the spreading of the sport to Limerick, Cork and Belfast. Teams are starting to rise around universities in these areas of the island, almost as if intended to cover all four provinces.
The Limerick team is coming together in University of Limerick but currently hasn’t begun regular training. Their team name is the UL Werewolves and they got together in late September for the first time. A source has said they are getting serious and are hopeful that they will begin training properly next semester.
The Cork team are still incredibly new, with tryouts only happening November 15th. The team will be running in conjunction with UCC’s Harry Potter society. One Facebook user has suggested the Cork Craickens as a name for the team and I for one hope this comes to fruition. Watch this space for their development over time.
The Belfast team is organised around Queen’s University and meets every Sunday for training. November 20th marked the 8th training of the team and it seems they are getting into their grove ahead of their first friendly with the Dublin community team.
Meeting Up
The first real opportunity for some of the newer teams to see each other in action is coming this weekend. Although some of the university groups such as DCU have attended intervarsity events, including the Tri-Wizard Cup earlier this month, this will be one of the first successful cross-country Quidditch matches. The first official friendly between the Dublin Draoichta Dragons and the Queen’s University Belfast Quidditch club is to occur this coming Sunday 27th of November at 12pm. The event page can be seen on Facebook here.
This is the first change for the Dublin community and Belfast University teams to test their prowess against a group of complete strangers who don’t care to be polite about being better. Some of the banter between the groups is obvious from the edited meme below. Let’s hope with a bit of work, Ireland and indeed Northern Ireland will be at the stage where, like Mainland UK next summer, can be looking forward to premier league type action.
