The table tennis trio of Eimear Breathnach (pictured), Rena McCarron Rooney and Philip Quinlan booked their places after competing in qualification tournaments around the world throughout 2011 and securing all-important ranking points along the way.

Meanwhile, four Para-equestrian riders, who have yet to be confirmed, will compete for the country after Ireland's qualifying score of 419 points from the Hartpury International event last summer was sufficient to rank Ireland eighth in the world rankings and therefore secure one of the 12 Paralympic places available.

"We are delighted for the athletes that have secured qualification places at the games to date," said Liam Harbison, chief executive of Paralympics Ireland and Chef de Mission of the London 2012 Paralympic team.

"It is very exciting that we will have our first ever equestrian team competing at a Games in London this year.

"We are on course to reach our target of 40 athletes with further places expected in the sports of athletics, cycling, shooting and swimming.

"The Irish Team will be announced on June 28."

Table tennis star Breathnach's will be a strong medal contender at London 2012 in what will be her second Paralympic Games after competing at Beijing 2008 but both McCarron Rooney and Quinlan will be making their games debuts.

Breathnach and Rooney will compete in the women's individual TT1-2 class at the ExCeL and will compete as a team in the women's TT1-3 Team event while Quinlan will compete in the men's individual TT2 event.

Meanwhile in equestrian, the Irish will be made up of four from eight riders eligible to fill the four spots at London 2012.


They are Helen Kearney, James Dwyer (pictured), Eilish Byrne, Breda Bernie, Geraldine Savage, Angela Lyons, Rosemary Gaffney and Kate Kerr Horan.

At present, twenty-two Irish athletes have secured qualification places for the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

Paralympics Ireland hopes to send a team of 40 athletes to the games which run from August 29 to September 9.

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