Kilkenny's Louise Maher takes on world’s best in Ultimate Pool

Kilkenny, a county renowned with sporting superstars, has produced another gem in another code.

Louise Maher is Kilkenny’s pool phenomenon, having won tournaments all over Ireland while also beating the best in England.

Louise has won four All-Irelands - two with Wexford and two with Kilkenny - and added a European title to her roll of honour in Malta in 2011, the only Irish women’s team to do so.

More recently Louise has been testing herself against the best in the world in the newly-formed Ultimate Pool competition. This event, which is staged over several weekends throughout the year, pits the best players in the world against each other to see who is the best in the world. Louise has won two major trophies in England. Her first trophy came in the Ultimate Pool Last Woman Standing competition in August 2023, where she beat women from all around the world. Louise recently won the Ultimate Pool Women’s Plate, beating England’s Nichola Oakes 5-0 in the final.

Sporting success runs in the family for the Hugginstown native. Louise is a sister of Emily Maher, who represented Ireland in the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and was a double gold medal winner at the World Youth Olympics in Moscow in 1998. Louise’s son Morgan Thomas also plays pool and has won several underage tournaments. He was part of the Irish under-25 team that won the World Championship in 2022.

In any sport longevity is a measure of greatness and Louise has spent many years at the top of the pool circuit. Now in her second decade competing at the highest level, Louise’s first major achievement came when she was selected to represent Ireland at the European Championship in Malta in 2011, where Ireland beat the reigning world champions Wales and European champions England en route to the title.

With her talents starting to get recognised Louise was asked to represent Wexford at the 2014 All-Ireland championships in Killarney as Kilkenny had no association at the time. The following year Wexford, thanks to Louise, won the All-Ireland title.

She enjoyed her time at Wexford, but wanted to play with her native county. With the rules stating a player transferring between counties had to take a year out she did not compete in 2017, but was back in action when the Kilkenny Pool Association was formed in 2018. She made a winning start in the black and amber as, in their very first year, Kilkenny became All-Ireland champions when beating a highly fancied Down team in the final. The Northern Ireland internationals were blown away by Louise’s skills and asked her to play on the Northern Ireland women’s blackball team. The rules permit this and Louise duly obliged, giving her the honour of playing for not one country but two.

For Louise, her greatest achievement is yet to come. Louise will be performing on the biggest of stages when she will appear on TV in the Ultimate Pool pairs. This will be shown on TNT Sports on Monday, November 25 from 6.30 to 9.30pm. Louise will team up with Phil Harrison, a former world champion and three-time World Masters champion, who is currently ranked fifth in the Ultimate Pool rankings. Louise will play three matches on November 25 at 6.30, 7.30 and 9pm as part of a group where only the top team will come through.

Pool is an amateur sport that is getting bigger all the time. The Kilkenny association now has over a 100 members and is still growing. It has three men’s teams, a women’s team, an under-23 team, two over-50s teams and an over-60s team - all wish Louise well in her quest to become the best in the world.