Double Commonwealth Games gold medallist Ian McClure leading para-bowls push for 2026

After a gold and silver medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, Team NI will also be looking to make history by fielding a para-bowls team for the 2026 games, with Glasgow strongly rumoured to be stepping in as the host city following Victoria’s withdrawal due to financial concerns.

But before the glitz and glamour of competition on the world stage, the Irish Bowls Federation is keen to get para-bowlers on the green as regularly as possible.

The programme is headed up by double Commonwealth Games gold medallist Ian McClure and Chris Mulholland.

McClure explained the dual intentions of the hugely successful event at the Grove, which attracted bowlers from all corners of Ireland.

“The Irish Bowls Federation are keen to promote equality and diversity and one of the areas that we are focused on is para-bowls, which is for the physically disabled and visually impaired,” McClure said.

“At the Grove we had over 30 participants from different areas across the island, from Dulbin to the Causeway, Bangor to Belfast, and we are having a bit of a fun bowls day, lunch and then more intensive play in the afternoon.

“This is really focused on the grassroots of the game to try to get people bowling, trying to link into club membership, and prove the old maxim that bowls is a sport for all.

“Aligned with that we have our high-performance element of bowling; at the moment we are trying to set up para-teams with test matches in England and Scotland and trying to put a team in the European Championships in September which are in Northfield,” he added.

“It is a twin attack, and we are very grateful for funding from Belfast City Council and Sport NI which has been a great support for this initiative. We have a lot of work to do and it is the start of a journey.”

McClure said new competitors coming into the sport are essential to drive the prospects of success at the top level.

"Our view and our strategy is they go hand in hand: you can’t have the high performance side of things without new people coming into the sport. Because we are starting off from a relatively low base there is visually impaired players playing within clubs at the moment and there are those with a physical disability playing.

“We want to identify those and promote this opportunity of representing Ireland at the highest level in terms of Commonwealth Games, World Champions and European Champions, but we… need both the grassroots to have that opportunity for high performance.

“We are very keen for Ireland to be represented on the world stage, the same as the other home countries – Wales, Scotland and England – and obviously then the powerhouses: Malaysia, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand as well.

“We want to make sure that Irish bowls is right at the forefront of the game which it is, but obviously in the para side of things we are starting that journey.

“We have linked in with bowls Scotland to provide a visually impaired director course and we had a good turnout at for that Shaw’s Bridge.

“We are delighted and very grateful that those people have taken the opportunity to put something back into the sport.”

While the ultimate goal is to develop teams to compete at the highest level, McClure said his main aim is simply to get more para-bowlers involved in the sport.

“The key thing is to come along a try it and give it a go,” he said. “The Irish Bowls Federation are promoting this opportunity; go along to your local club and give it a go.

“Come to one of our hubs. We have two hubs in Northern Ireland, one in Portrush Bowling Club and one at the Grove in Belfast.

“Come and give it a go, you will probably enjoy it. Give it a try – Chris Mulholland and myself are leading it up.”