Archery within Northern Ireland started way back, but our traceable history starts around 1953 with the presentation of the U.A.A. Silver Rose Bowl, and this is the oldest trophy we still have awarded each year. Back then it was the Ulster Archery Association with around 12 to 14 clubs, strangely enough they were based around the same areas as many clubs today. Although never strong in numbers the clubs seemed to strive with many fine archers among them.

Back in the late 70's there were still about a dozen or so clubs active but it was decided that with the troubles here that the word Ulster didn't help promote our embracement of all religions and perhaps the name should change from the Ulster Archery Association to the Northern Ireland Archery Society.

And so the N.I.A.S. was born, as one of the Regional Societies within the Grand National Archery Society (G.N.A.S.), which is the governing body of archery within Great Britain. The N.I.A.S. is probably one of the smallest but this fact doesn't take away from the enthusiasm of all the archers here.

All types of archery are shot here from Indoor Target, Outdoor Target, Field and Clout as well as all styles from Barebow, Recurve, Compound and Longbow. The most popular rounds being Indoor Target and Field. It's not unusual to have as many people turn out for a field shoot as would turn out for an Indoor Target round.

We currently have over 20 active clubs with a total membership of over 450. This is the first time we've topped the 450 mark and we hope to up this even further this year.

This region is no different than many others in the fact that we are very low on both girl and lady archers. This is an area we hope to address in the near future as the sport of archery can be done by all, male, female, able bodied and disabled.

A Brief History of Archery

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