Enda Byrt

Enda Byrt is one of the great pioneering coaches of Irish basketball.

Hall of Fame Induction

2025

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International Coach

1988-1999

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International Honours

Promotions Cup 1994

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Clubs associated with

Claremont Admirals, Clare Cascaders

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Enda Byrt is one of the great pioneering coaches of Irish basketball, most notably through his involvement with the men’s international programme, and has been a key administrative figure in popularising the sport in this country.

The Clare native was part of a vibrant, young new national executive elected in 1979-80 that revolutionised the sport over the ensuing decade. As head of games development he helped establish the first extensive roll out of coaching and table official courses, including at his beloved national residential camp in Dungarvan. He also founded and acted as editor of the Basketball Ireland magazine which hugely promoted and documented the sport’s growth during that period.

As chairperson of international affairs he helped set up the first junior (U19) men’s programme, and served as an assistant to Danny Fulton when Ireland recorded its first ever win in Europe in the grade, beating Denmark in Finland in 1984.

In 1988 then, after also being Fulton’s assistant for four years with the senior programme, he was elevated to head coach of the senior men’s team, a position which he would occupy for most of the following decade. In that time he transformed and professionalised how Irish teams prepared and successfully recruited Irish-American players, most notably Pat Burke. During his tenure Ireland won the 1994 Promotions Cup in the National Basketball Arena while he also led Ireland to three appearances in the world university games, including in 1995 in Tokyo when an Ireland team featuring Burke, Adrian Fulton and Karl Donnelly finished eighth out of the 17 countries, and famously rattled a Team USA featuring Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson and Ray Allen.

Coaching continued to be a passion for him; in the mid-noughties he took a sabbatical to serve as an NCAA assistant coach to his great friend Pete Strickland in Coastal Carolina.

He has also been a brilliant champion for basketball in his native county. In 1983-84 Claremont Admirals, based in his hometown of Ennistymon, entered Division Two of the national league with Enda as their player-coach. Their four-year participation in the league is to this day still fondly remembered in the mid-west and beyond, not least for their recruitment of the hugely-popular Ed Randolph.

A man of many interests and talents – just last year the retired school teacher had a book published on music and ceilí bands in the local area – he continues to contribute to the game, acting as a mentor to coaches in the local club Clare Cascaders and also head coaching Western Seahawks who have been one of the stronger teams on the women’s national masters scene in recent years.

From Ennistymon to Estonia, Enda’s legacy can still be felt.