Last year marked 50 years since the founding of RYA Northern Ireland, and three of those who were there at the beginning have shared their memories of how it got off the ground.
In 1973, amid the turmoil of the Troubles, Northern Ireland had no national governing body for sailing.
“The UDRA [Ulster Dinghy Racing Association] had effectively become ‘defunct’ but there was a need for the RYA to be in Northern Ireland,” Curly Morris said.
Indeed, such a body was a pre-requisite for funding under The Sports Council established by the restored devolved government, according RYANI’s first female chair Maeve Bell.
Her husband Adrian Bell noted: “If you were going to get government funding you had to have some sort of organisation which would be respected, so the current Sports Council needed to have a body. This is where the ISA couldn’t do that at that time.”
The RYA website has more on this story HERE.