‘Club of the Year’ aims to shoot even higher

The University of Limerick Archery Club, spurred on by the recent success of hosting the 2023 World Archery Youth Championships, aims to be the hub of archery in Ireland and drive standards for European events, with Team Captain Lauren Moriarty saying, “our goal in the next few years is to bring Limerick if not Ireland to the centre of archery in this part of Europe”.  

Following the resounding success of the 2023 World Archery Youth Championships held last summer on UL grounds, Archery Ireland has entrusted the Limerick-based club with the hosting rights of the 2024 National Indoor Championships to be held on the 23rd and 24th March. This is a huge opportunity for the UL Archery Club, and one they are not taking for granted, when talking to Treasurer Dervla Ryan she said that “In the politics of archery, it is very centred in Dublin like a lot of sports, so our goal is to bring it all back to Limerick”.  

President and Team Captain duo, Dervla Ryan and Lauren Moriarty drove the club to new heights last year as the first all-female leadership in the last 10 years of the club’s three-decade-long history. They attributed the ‘2023 University of Limerick Club of the Year’ award to the fantastic volunteers and members within the society, claiming it was their “sense of unity and family” within the club that drove them to success. This year, under new titles but with unchanged passion, they hope to continue to drive the standard for national and international events.  

With over two hundred contestants attending the National Indoor Championships, many of them being past Erasmus students who found their love of archery on the very campus they will be returning to, it is an opportunity to show that Limerick can be a thriving hub for the sport in the future.  

Dervla and Lauren aim to make the sport “sexier” in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience. They no longer want stories of award presentations in cold, wet car parks to be the norm, instead, plans are in place to implement award dinners where friends and family can come together to celebrate their success.  

However, all that is to come, for now, they have their sights firmly set on making the Indoor Championships run as smoothly as possible and perhaps bring back some medals along the way.