Coosan youths to represent Ireland in fly fishing

Two young members of the Coosan and District Angling Association will be representing Ireland this year. Fergal McKiernan and Sean Dempsey, both students at the Marist College, Athlone, will compete in the four nations Fly-Fishing competition, which will be held in Scotland in July. Indeed this is the third year in succession that the two have made the Irish team. And this year, to crown their achievement, Fergal is captain of the team and Sean is vice captain. It is a credit credit to the club who has put a lot of work into coaching these two lads as well as several other juniors in the club. Fergal and Sean are no strangers to this scene as they have represented Ireland at the same competition last year when it was held at Grafham in England as well as Llandegfedd in Wales in 2009. Each international team consists of 14 youths; the team manager, two coaches and a fly-tier. A number of parents also travel to the events. The selection process for the team begins in April when the Irish national competition is held. Competitors from all over Ireland including Northern Ireland compete in this event. The top ten anglers from this event qualify for the Irish team, and then the top four anglers from the previous international competition also qualify. Ireland will host the four nations competition in 2012 when Sean will be team captain and Fergal will be vice captain. Both Sean and Fergal qualified for the 2011 ITFFA youth team at the national qualifier in April 2010, as they were both among the top ten anglers. They also qualified for both the TAFI Leinster River and lake teams along with John Naughton. In fact Sean was the overall winner of the Leinster lake qualifier and second overall in the River competition. Sean Dempsey's performance in the TAFI competitions qualified him for the TAFI youth team that will compete in the world youth fly-fishing championships in Italy in August 2011. This team is made up of six members and represents all of Ireland, north and south. The world championships will be held in Arezzo in the Tuscany region of northern Italy. Sean was also placed in second place overall in the 2011 youth all Ireland fly tying competition for the second year in a row. There are around 30 countries competing in the world championships. A cocktail evening and raffle will be held at the Lough Ree Inn on Saturday, May 21, at 8pm to help with expenses for Coosan Anglers with music by DJ Padraig Nally. All welcome.