News
Welsh Athletics represents the Sport Sector in Ireland
09/03/2026 00:00, In Blog /
Welsh Athletics CEO James Williams attended a series of meetings in Ireland last week as part of the Welsh Governments St Davids Day celebrations in Ireland.
The two day visit was part of a wider Welsh Government focus of trying to establish greater links with Ireland across Business, Trade and collaboration.
As part of the visit, a series of meeting were held with Irish Athletics, focussing on sharing insight, challenges and opportunities across both organisations. The meetings focused on Coach Development and participation, James commented on the discussions;
It was great to hear a bit about the journey Irish Athletics have been on in regards to coach development – the sport is clearly booming in Ireland, with a lot of International success in recent years – it’s a model that we should aspire to adopt. It was also great to explore the ways the sport continues to grow from a wider participation perspective, and there was a clear desire to continue discussion across this area in the near future.
A further roundtable discussion was held with the Federation of Irish Sport, the CEO of the Welsh Sports Association and several Irish NGB. The discussions covered a range of topics including Volunteering, ED&I Objectives, Governance and funding.
The roundtable was a great opportunity to hear from different Governing Bodies and to share challenges and opportunities on both sides of the Irish Sea.
It was a really useful discussion, and it was great to hear how some of the NGB’s around the room have approached the challenges of engaging new communities, and evolving their offer to meet the needs of their members. I certainly hope that we can repeat the visit in the future and explore areas of future collaboration.
The visit also saw Welsh Government host an evening with Colin Jackson – this saw Colin talk at length about his career as an athlete, and how he used his learning to apply to the business World.
Welsh Athletics would like to thank Welsh Government for the support with the visit, and for including us in their St Davids Day celebrations with the Irish sporting Community.