World Athletics Heritage plaque being awarded to the Irish Schools Athletics Association
The Irish Schools’ Athletics Association (ISSA) – whose championships have helped identify, nurture and develop generations of athletics talent across the island of Ireland – has been recognised with a World Athletics Heritage Plaque in the ‘competition’ category.
The plaque was officially presented on Friday 29 May 2026 at Tullamore Harriers Stadium in Spollanstown, County Offaly, where it will remain on permanent public display. The presentation was made by Pierce O’Callaghan, Head of Competition Management at World Athletics, Brid Golden, President of Athletics Ireland, and Billy Delaney, President of Irish Schools.
“Congratulations to the Irish Schools’ Championships on the occasion of your 110th anniversary and on receiving a World Athletics Heritage Plaque,” commented World Athletics President Sebastian Coe.
“Dating back to 1916, when the Irish Amateur Athletic Association first promoted national championships for schoolboys, this movement has come a long way since. The organisation developed to provide a national championship structure for schools across Ireland, with provincial competitions allowing young athletes to progress from regional to national and international levels.
“Previous Irish Schools champions include global stars past and present such as Eamonn Coghlan, Sonia O’Sullivan and Rhasidat Adeleke among many others.
“Today, the Irish Schools’ Athletics Association is an entirely volunteer-led organisation, providing aspiring young athletes with a crucial championship platform in cross-country running and track and field athletics, and nurtures generations of future international athletes.
“I would like to end with a sincere thank you to Michael H Burke – chief patron of the Museum of World Athletics and a former winner of several Connacht schools sprint titles in the 1960s – and to all the various school teachers and officials who have organised schools athletics in Ireland over the past 110 years.”
The roots of the Irish Schools’ Championships date back to 1916, when the Irish Amateur Athletic Association (IAAA) considered the creation of national championships for schoolboys at a time when athletics in Ireland had been affected by the impact of the First World War.
The inaugural meeting was originally scheduled for Lansdowne Road on 20 May 1916, but was postponed “due to the rebellion” and rescheduled for 23 September that year. The first championships took place in fine weather, with Cork Grammar School and Belvedere College each producing five champions, while Mountjoy School recorded three victories.
From 1917 to 1922, the IAAA and the GAA held separate Irish schools championships, before the formation of the National Athletic and Cycling Association of Ireland brought the All-Ireland Schools and Colleges Championships under one national athletics structure.
The programme continued to grow over the following decades, with age categories and events redefined, schools athletics developing its own representative structures, and provincial competition becoming central to the all-Ireland pathway.
Although the All-Ireland Schools’ Championships were suspended from 1941 to 1946, provincial championships continued, and interprovincial schools competition resumed after the war. The inaugural All-Ireland Schools’ Cross-Country Championships for boys were held at St Joseph’s College, Garbally Park, Ballinasloe, in 1964.
During the 1960s, the organisation developed further as the Irish Secondary Schools’ Athletic Association, with all four provinces again becoming part of the all-Ireland schools structure. In 1968, a schools team representing the island of Ireland competed in a quadrangular track and field match at Connah’s Quay, near Chester.
Girls’ schools track and field championships were introduced in 1970, and the programme for girls expanded significantly in the decades that followed.
Today, the Irish Schools’ Athletics Association remains a volunteer-led organisation, providing championship opportunities in cross-country running and track and field athletics. Its competitions continue to offer young athletes a pathway from school and provincial competition to national and international level.
The award of the World Athletics Heritage Plaque honours not only the championships themselves, but also the generations of teachers, officials, volunteers and athletes who have shaped Irish schools athletics for more than a century.
Pierre-Jean Vazel for World Athletics Heritage