1957 International Catholic School Games - Brothers Introduced to Basketball
As regards the baskets, Bill found out later that the international Catholic student games were held in Dublin in 1957. It was mostly an athletics competition but it also had a very entertaining competitive basketball competition for say under 18s. Among the countries that took part were Spain, Portugal, Austria, France, Ireland and maybe one or two other countries. The competition was extremely competitive. Ireland put together a team. Players came from schools like St.Pauls in Raheny and players from the Army/ sons of soldiers in Cathal Brugha Barracks. It was quite a decent Irish team who did well, didn't win, but were able to compete.
The Christian Brothers were enthralled by the game of basketball. They never seen the game before but they were very much taken back by all the athleticism and the round ball. So apparently, the Brothers made the decision to introduce basketball into the school.