WHEN Brendan Dolan pinged in his sixth 180 in the fifth leg of the sixth set of his last 32 clash with Michael van Gerwen at the PDC World Championships, it appeared to be little more than a last hurrah for the Fermanagh man.
"To play for your country is the greatest honour you can have," says Ray Mulvey after his selection for the Ireland team for the Island International Tournament in January.
IF you want an example of how darts is growing across Ireland then the makeup of the country's men's and ladies teams for the upcoming Island Nations tournament gives a perfect one.
"All we want is a better future for our kids and sport can help to do that"
IT is 17 years since Palestine's national darts champion, Taiseer Mustafa, first moved to Ireland but his connection with this country has grown ever stronger over the past harrowing year for his people back home.
"I cannot express my deep thanks to the people of Ireland and the Irish government for the support they have shown for Palestine, not just now, but historically," Mustafa told Darts In Ireland.
Despite Israel's widespread destruction of Gaza and its people, Mustafa still holds out hope of a better future for Palestine.
"Right now it is difficult to see what that future is as the death and the damage has been so huge," he said.
"It is sad to watch the images coming out of Gaza every day. What is happening is not ok, it is a genocide of our people."
However it is through his love of darts that Taiseer can see a way that Palestine can move forward with confidence.
It was only in 2022 that the Palestinian Darts Association was founded, but already the country's darts players are making their mark on the international stage.
Last month Taiseer was part of a four-man Palestine team that competed at the WDF Africa Cup in Egypt, winning bronze medals in the singles, doubles and team events.
It is staggering success for a team that is less than two years old, and with Palestine only joining the World Darts Federation last year, while Taiseer's brother Riad was the country's first ever international participant at the 2023 Bahrain Open.
Meanwhile, 51-year-old Taiseer, who moved from Ramallah to work in Ireland in 2007 and now lives in Swords, Dublin, has enjoyed a meteoric rise in darts, himself, over the past year.
"My brother first introduced to me darts when I was about 12 years old," he said.
"However we only ever played the game for fun and not in any systematic way.
"It is only over the past year that I have been playing the game competitively. I now practice up to eight hours a week and my game is improving the more I play.
"I may be 51 now but I feel as if I am still in my 20s when I play darts."
Earlier this year, Taiseer was allowed to enter Palestine's first ever national darts championships, playing his games online from Ireland.
"My nephew also played in it from his home in Spain," he says.
"We have up to 40 players in Palestine now, including eight women, so it is growing all the time.
"The standard is not very strong but I was still very happy to win and become Palestine's first ever national darts champion.
"My game is improving all the time as I used to average in the 40s but I am now up around a 60 average."
Taiseer also recently played at the WDF Irish Open and Irish Classic events in the Killarney darts festival earlier this month.
He admitted to being blown away by the huge popularity of darts in Ireland, and at the number of Irish players competing and playing at such a high standard in both events.
"Even to see so many Irish youth players turning up and playing was really incredible and they are already at a very high standard," he said.
"Ireland has players at the PDC World Championships but I am sure that many of these new youth players will be making it to the big stage as well."
And he sees no reason why players from Palestine can't join them.
"At the moment it is all about growing the game in Palestine and we hope to see more clubs start up in more cities in the West Bank.
"Hopefully the bronze medals we won at the Africa Cup will make some companies back home sit up and take notice and maybe financially support us in the future.
"It is not even for the players we have now but to bring through more youth players so that Palestine can continue to compete at these competitions.
"It is a very tough time for Palestine right now but we all want to see a future that can be bright and sports like darts can help to make that happen."
