Glanmire's Emer Dunne picked in Irish basketball squad
PUSHING ON: Emer Dunne, UCC Glanmire, battling Christina Ojide Boike, Portlaoise Panthers. Picture: Jim Coughlan.
Ireland women’s head coach James Weldon has named a 13-person squad for the three-game March window of the FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2027 Qualifiers.
UCC Glanmire’s Emer Dunne is set for her first senior cap, having played with Ireland’s U20’s during last summer’s FIBA U20 Women’s EuroBasket tournament. There are returns for Maura Fitzpatrick and Caitlin Gloeckner, as injury rules out Claire Melia, while Bridget Herlihy has retired.
20-year-old Dunne has played all 18 Domino’s Women’s Super League games so far this season for her club. Fitzpatrick returns to the squad for the first time since November 2021, when she faced the Netherlands and Czech Republic in the FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2023 Qualifiers.
Gloeckner featured twice in the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers campaign and was also part of the Ireland U20 squad at the 2025 FIBA U20 Women’s EuroBasket.
Ireland women’s head coach James Weldon said: “It’s a long window, we have three games in seven days, so we’ll definitely have to rotate our squad to manage their playing loads. We hope we can avoid injuries over the window, but we have additional players on standby too, if that occurs.
"Unfortunately we’ll be without Claire Melia, who has been nursing an injury niggle all season, while Bridget Herlihy announced her retirement last December. We had three EuroBasket debutants in the last window and we’ve been consistently building squad depth.
"It’s great to bring in someone with the experience of Maura Fitzpatrick, while Caitlin Gloeckner is another in super form with her club, Cleveland Rockets.”
They are in the mix to move onto the next phase of qualification.
“We come into this window very much in contention to reach the second round of qualifiers for FIBA Women’s EuroBasket, thanks to our win over Bosnia and Herzegovina in November and we’ll be looking to build on that, first up against Luxembourg.”
Ireland are currently third in Group A with one win from three games. They face Luxembourg on March 11, followed Bosnia and Herzegovina on March 14, both of which will be live on the TG4 Player and App. The team conclude their campaign with a behind-closed-doors fixture against Israel in Riga, Latvia, on March 17.
The winners and runners-up from each of the seven groups qualify for the second round of FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2027 Qualifiers, along with the three best-ranked third-placed teams.
Hazel Finn (Trinity Meteors),
Edel Thornton (Gurranabraher Credit Union Brunell),
Sorcha Tiernan (FloMAX Liffey Celtics), Abigail Rafferty (GDESSA-Barreiro, Portugal),
Bronagh Power-Cassidy (Villanova Wildcats),
Enya Maguire (HGB Horbisa Greenkw Barakaldo, Spain),
Lorraine Scanlon (Utility Trust St Paul’s),
Michelle Clarke (Killester),
Sarah Hickey (SETU Waterford Wildcats),
Kate Hickey (SETU Waterford Wildcats),
Annaliese Murphy (UCC Glanmire),
Maura Fitzpatrick (Caledonia Gladiators),
Emer Dunne (UCC Glanmire),
Caitlin Gloeckner (Cleveland Rockets)
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