Terry Boyle 6th Dan WKC and member of the WKC Presidential Board is the 1st chairman of Karate Northern Ireland (Karate NI). Karate NI was formed some 3 years ago and the first year was spent finding its feet, getting a Constitution agreed, voting in an interim committee and running its very first tournament. The event was such a success the venue has had to be changed for subsequent events, as the number of entries keeps getting bigger and each year. Terry said: “I expect we may have to have 6 tatami’s next year. Karate NI now has 75% of all practising karateka in Northern Ireland in membership. Its member associations are all from Northern Ireland and are all are affiliated to the major European and World bodies, WKC, IKU, WUKF, ESKA, KUGB. Its a multi style and multi organisation federation and all its members work well together, believing they are much stronger being together than being apart”. He goes on to state “Northern Ireland is far too small a country for associations to stay apart. I grew up with most of them, fought with all of them and trained many of them down over the years. Karate NI now brings them all together within Northern Ireland. We use WKC rules in our competitions as they are the best known by all members”.
“A person can only be chairman of Karate NI for 2 unbroken years, then one must step down from the management committee. I will step down in the next couple of months and make way for our new chairman and perhaps a new direction as well”. I am pleased to say that both my secretary and treasurer for 2015 were both female (Yasmin Geddis & Leona McFadden), something we do not see much of in karate.  We’re off to a good start we now have a coach education programme, a referee training programme, national open championships, on-going sponsorship and recognition from Belfast city and a good, knowledgeable and experienced group of leaders”.