The first club, the Molesey Ladies, was founded in 1887.[citation needed] The first national association was the Irish Ladies Hockey Union in 1894,[citation needed] and though rebuffed by the Hockey Association, women's field hockey grew rapidly around the world. This led to the International Federation of Women's Hockey Association (IFWHA) in 1927, though this did not include many continental European countries where women played as sections of men's associations and were affiliated to the FIH. The IFWHA held conferences every three years, and tournaments associated with these were the primary IFWHA competitions.