Ireland national basketball team

Ireland is a men's international basketball team representing the island of Ireland. It is organised by Basketball Ireland, with players from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Ireland play their home matches at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght, Dublin. The team has never qualified for the final stages of EuroBasket or the FIBA World Championship.

History

Ireland's basketball association affiliated to FIBA in 1947. In 1948 the team was invited to the 1948 Olympic tournament in nearby London, from which many top sides were absent in the aftermath of World War II. The team finished last, losing every match heavily. Ireland were involved in Olympic qualification only once; in 1976 they finished bottom of the European qualification group.

In 1988 Ireland finished runner-up in EuroBasket Division C. In 1993 the National Basketball Arena opened which became the team's new permanent home. Division C was hosted there the following year, and Ireland beat Cyprus 81–78 in the final to gain promotion to EuroBasket Division B. Ireland narrowly failed to win promotion to Division A in EuroBasket 2005, losing to Denmark by 4 points after having won the first game in Dublin by 10 points.

In February 2010, with Ireland in the midst of a serious economic decline, Basketball Ireland announced that it was €1.2m in debt and was deactivating its senior international squads to cut costs.

EuroBasket 2009 Qualifying campaign

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