Mayo native named in 13-player Ireland basketball squad for Euro qualifiers

Ireland head coach James Weldon has named his 13-player squad for the three-game March window of FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2027 qualifiers.

The squad features Kiltimagh native Hazel Finn, who is now attached to the Trinity Meteors club in Dublin. Finn has been a regular in Irish squads for the past few years.

“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,” said Weldon.

The coach has called up UCC Glanmire’s Emer Dunne, who is set for her first senior cap having played with Ireland’s Under 20s during last summer’s FIBA Under 20 Women’s EuroBasket tournament.

There are returns for Maura Fitzpatrick and Caitlin Gloeckner as injury rules out Claire Melia, while Bridget Herlihy has retired.

Twenty-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. Caitlin Gloeckner, meanwhile, featured twice in the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 qualifiers and was also part of the Ireland squad at the 2025 FIBA Under 20 Women’s EuroBasket.

Weldon added: “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.

“Emer (Dunne) comes into the fold now, having come through the Irish underage set-up at Under 18 and Under 20 level and she’s been a key player for her club side UCC Glanmire, who’ve been doing really well this season.

“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.”

Ireland are currently third in Group A with one win from three games. They face Luxembourg today (Wednesday) followed Bosnia & Herzegovina on Saturday (March 14), with both games to be shown live on the TG4 Player and app. The team conclude their campaign with a behind closed doors fixture against Israel in Riga, Latvia, next Tuesday (March 17).

“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 & Herzegovina in November and we’ll be looking to build on that, first up against Luxembourg,” said Weldon.

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.

The Irish squad in full is as follows: 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).

The game details are: Wednesday, March 11, Luxembourg v Ireland, Centre National Sportif & Culturel d’Coque, 6 p.m.; Saturday, March 14, Bosnia & Herzegovina v Ireland, Arena Husejin Smajlovic, Zenica, 7 p.m.; Tuesday, March 17, Ireland v Israel, Komandas Sporta Spelu Halle, Riga, Latvia, 4.30 p.m.