Local link with world jigsaw champs

Ireland representatives in this month’s World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship have a connection with Nenagh.

Emma Quirke and her father Darren will be taking part in the annual world competition, which kicks off in Valladolid, Spain, on September 17.

Emma (24) is a granddaughter of well-known couple Pat and Patricia Ahern of Yewston, Nenagh. Living in Kerry, she often visited Nenagh when growing up and bought many of her jigsaws locally at JKC’s toy shop.

Now a schoolteacher in Blessington, Co Wicklow, Emma competes in jigsaw puzzle championships. This month in Spain she will be involved in the Individual challenge, in which she will have to complete a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle within a given time limit.

Emma will be joined by her father in also competing in the Pairs event, in which two competitors must complete a single puzzle of 500 or 1,000 pieces within a time limit. Darren, a doctor in Killarney, is married to Pat and Patricia’s daughter Kathryn.

They are wished the best of luck in the annual competition, which has been organised by the World Jigsaw Puzzle Federation since 2019 and features participants from more than 70 countries.