Defense Forces Basketball

Basketball in Ireland has been played in the Defense Forces since 1928, with the earliest Championships being played in Army Barracks, and continuing after WWII, the Defense Forces teams played in the All-Ireland Blitzes alongside civilian teams for many years. For a long time after the introduction of Basketball in Ireland in the Defense Forces the game was played under different rules, with a ball more like a Medicine Ball than a Basketball and rules permitting more physical contact making the game more like a cross between Basketball and Gaelic Football, due to Ireland’s isolation at the time, than the Basketball played Internationally.