The Higher Education Snooker and Pool Council (HESPC) was a voluntary, not-for-profit organisation established to promote cue sports in institutions of higher education on the island of Ireland.
Founded in the early 1990s, it was recognised by the Republic of Ireland Billiards and Snooker Association, the Irish Pool Association, Northern Ireland Universities Sports Committee (NIUSC) and the Colleges and Universities Sports Association of Ireland (CUSAI) as the governing body for higher-education cue sports for the whole of Ireland. Its wider membership met during captains' meetings at the two main intervarsity events, in snooker and pool, each year.
As well as these domestic championships, HESPC organised both Irish teams that attended the annual Student Eight-Ball Home Internationals for all five home countries, and assisted with the British Universities and Colleges Sport Snooker Home Nations Festival (for the four UK teams), which has run alongside HESPC's own Snooker Home Internationals since 1996.
The organisation was wound up on 18 August 2014, having achieved what it set out to do; two new bodies, with different people at the helm, are set to take higher education snooker and pool in Ireland forward for the next number of years.
Roll of honour
The last Irish intervarsity champions under the auspices of HESPC were: University of Ulster (snooker) and Queen's University Belfast (pool); Paddy Brady (NUI Maynooth) and Andrew Maguire (QUB) were the respective individual champions. The all-time record holders are Queen's University Belfast (12 snooker wins) and University Dublin (6 pool wins).