Breda Dick

Breda Dick was one of the finest Irish players of her generation.

Hall of Fame Induction

2025

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International Player

14 years

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National Cup Winner

1984, 2023 (Division One)

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National League Winner

1978/79, 1981/82

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Clubs associated with

Killester, Sporting Belfast, Rockets

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Breda Dick(née Grennell) was one of the finest Irish players of her generation and subsequently has gone on to be a tremendous servant as both a coach and administrator in developing the game in her adopted city of Belfast.

Breda enjoyed a sterling international career, playing for the senior national women’s team for 14 years, including for a time alongside her sisters Philly and Clare. In 1982 she was captain of the first Irish team to win the Four Countries championship, held in Belfield.

Hailing from one of Ireland’s great basketball families (the Grennells), she took up the sport within a few years of the foundation of Killester Basketball Club with whom she would win the inaugural national women’s league (1978-79) and the following season’s title as well, playing alongside her sisters Philly and Clare and coached by brother Martin.

Upon transferring from Killester Kittens to Naomh Mhuire then, she helped the Oblate Hall-based club establish itself as one of the powers of the sport for the remainder of the century. In 1981-82 they pulled off the national league and Top Four national championships double (as well as the prestigious UK-Ireland competition, the Federation Cup), thus initiating the first great rivalry in the women’s league. While Meteors rebounded to win the following four league titles, Naomh Mhuire, with Breda starring at the shooting guard position, were a constant thorn in their side, like when beating them in the inaugural National Cup final in 1984 with player-coach Breda scoring a game-high 22 points.  That success was the pathway for Naomh Mhuire to become the first Irish side to participate in the European Cup as they participated in a home-and-away tie with DJK Agon Dusseldorf.

The following year Breda relocated to Belfast, home of her husband and National League player Francis Dick, and soon propelled the local team Sporting Belfast (Team Satzenbrau) to a National Cup final appearance against eventual winners Blarney; to this day it remains the only time an Ulster adult women’s team has appeared in a top-tier national final.

After taking some time out then to start a family (which includes her son Paul, the current Irish senior men’s international), Breda again threw herself back into the sport. While in Dublin she had coached some teams in her alma mater St Mary’s Holy Faith (with whom she had won three All Ireland leagues with as a player), she became particularly consumed by coaching from the late 1990s on, initially with her children’s primary school, St Anne’s, Dunmurry. To provide club basketball for them and other kids in the city she subsequently founded Lisburn City Basketball, later to be known as Rockets, in 2023.

Over the past 20 years Rockets – whether that’s prefixed by Ulster, Phoenix or now, Cleveland – has become one of the biggest clubs in the province, with 550 current members, aided hugely by Breda chairing the club and coaching multiple teams through the years, from U12s up to national league. In 2023 the club won the women’s Division One League Cup, in 2024 the U18 men’s National Cup while this season it has entered a men’s team in the BI national development league.

Breda also spearheads the Cleveland project that provides basketball for more than 45 primary schools and 6,000 children in the greater Belfast area.

She has contributed as an administrator at national level too, being a member of the women’s national league committee for over a decade now. In fact it was in that capacity that she presented the women’s superleague trophy in April 2024 to her niece Michelle Clarke (daughter of Philly and the late Kenneth and sister of team coach Mark). It was fitting, as who was the last Killester captain to lift that prize? One Breda Grennell, 44 years earlier.