Dermot's dream year puts him among the stars
Snooker: Dermot Kelly
This time two years ago, still under-16, Dermot Kelly was just off the back of playing in his first ever national snooker tournament. The fact that he won it outright was most certainly a sign of things to come as next month the teenager from Killawalla will be in the UK competing in his first ever professional competition. As rises go, they don’t come much more meteoric.
Dermot Kelly has enjoyed a year to remember, winning the All-Ireland U18 Snooker Championship and becoming the country’s number one ranked player for his age.
His All-Ireland win came on Sunday, June 7, when he beat Longford’s Joe Shannon in a closely-fought final played in Carlow. Kelly took the deciding frame in a best of five encounter and also shot the highest break (63) of the weekend.
The Mayo man was rightly considered as the player to beat entering the tournament as he had won three of the season’s four U18 ranking events already played. He became the first Mayo winner of the All-Ireland U18 title since 2010.
The U18 Irish Snooker Tour 2025/2026 ended with Dermot Kelly as the top ranked player and this December he has been handed a wildcard entry into the 2026 Snooker Shoot Out – a professional ranking tournament at the Tower Circus in Blackpool, England.
It won’t be his first time to play in England this year as Dermot helped Ireland reach the shield team final at the U21 Home Internationals in Leeds in August while back in March, he was on the Ireland U18 team that took part in the European Snooker Championships in Gandia, Spain.
