Claire Melia is set to make her first appearance for Ireland since claiming a silver medal with BAXI Ferrol in the FIBA Euro Cup after James Weldon named his 12-person squad for the FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2027 qualifiers.
The Kildare native missed the friendly wins over Norway in July but returns for the clashes with Luxembourg (12 November), Bosnia and Herzegovina (15 November) and Israel (18 November).
The first two will take place at the National Basketball Arena in Dublin, with the Israel match to take place in Latvia.
Three players are in line for their FIBA Women’s EuroBasket debuts – Bronagh Power-Cassidy, Enya Maguire and Lorraine Scanlon.
Power-Cassidy and Maguire both made their international debuts against Estonia in August 2022, while Scanlon made her bow in the 78-63 win over Norway in July.
Power-Cassidy has concluded an impressive stateside career, where she finished the 15th highest scorer of all time with Holy Cross, on 1425 points, winning the Patriot League twice. She then played for Villanova Wildcats during 2024/25 season and is now a graduate assistant coach with the team.
Maguire is another recent US college graduate and is now playing club basketball in Spain. She has featured regularly for Ireland in summer friendlies, against Estonia and Portugal in 2022, Uganda, Denmark and Netherlands in 2024 and against Norway in 2025. She also played with Ireland’s 3x3 team in the 2024 FIBA 3x3 Women’s World Series.
Scanlon helped Utility Trust St Paul’s to the Domino’s Women’s Super League final last season while the 32-year-old is also an inter-county footballer with Kerry.
"This November window presents a tough challenge for the squad, with three games in six days," Weldon said.
"Our two home games against Luxembourg and Bosnia and Herzegovina will hopefully give us a good platform to build on, as naturally we’re eager to get some wins early in the campaign to give us the best possible shot of making the second round of qualifying."
The winners and runners up from each of the seven groups qualify for the second round of FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2027 qualifiers, along with the three best-ranked third-placed teams.
Ireland: Hazel Finn (Trinity Meteors), Edel Thornton (Gurranabraher Credit Union Brunell), Sorcha Tiernan (FloMAX Liffey Celtics), Abigail Rafferty (GDESSA-Barreiro, Portugal), Bridget Herlihy (unattached), Bronagh Power-Cassidy (Villanova Wildcats), Enya Maguire (HGB Horbisa Greenkw Barakaldo, Spain), Lorraine Scanlon (Utility Trust St Paul’s), Claire Melia (BAXI Ferrol, Spain), Michelle Clarke (Killester), Sarah Hickey (SETU Waterford Wildcats), Kate Hickey (SETU Waterford Wildcats).
