Through contacts with John Shepherd, who was Judge in the English Association and later TWIF Treasurer, Ireland became interested in the tug-of-war sport and founded The Irish Tug of War Association (ITOWA) in 1967. Mr. Tommy Elmore, who later became TWIF Treasurer, joined the ITOWA in early 1968 and attended the European Championship with the Irish teams in 1968 Borculo, Netherlands. Ireland did not win a medal at their first international competition, but organized the next European Championships in 1969 in Fermoy. Ireland has been the host of seven TWIF events; the most recent being the Indoor World Championships 2006 in Killarney. Irish teams participated in 227 TWIF competitions and won 2 World Games titles, 14 World titles and 8 European titles.  Boley has been (and still is) one of the most successful clubs of Ireland, winning many medals in Open Club Competition but is also the main contributor of pullers for the national teams.