The Higher Education Snooker and Pool Council (HESPC) is 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 is 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 meets during captains' meetings at the two main intervarsity events, in snooker and pool, each year.
As well as these domestic championships, HESPC organises both Irish teams that attend the annual Student Eight-Ball Home Internationals for all five home countries, and assists 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.
HESPC's committee is: Dr Patrick McWilliams, chairman; Colm Dooley, president and treasurer; Brian Keenan, secretary; Steven O'Reilly, student liaison. Its correspondence address is: 41 Wainsfort Manor Crescent, Terenure, Dublin 6W.
The current Irish intervarsity champions are: NUI Maynooth (snooker) and Queen's University Belfast (pool); Vincent Muldoon (NUI Maynooth) and James McDonald (Dublin Institute of Technology) are the respective individual champions. The all-time record holders are Queen's University Belfast (11 snooker wins) and University College Dublin (6 pool wins).