On Monday, February 26, 2001, the Irish Government imposes a temporary ban on the country’s 120 livestock marts as the devastating foot-and-mouth disease spreads and threatens to become an epidemic in Great Britain. Strict procedures are also implemented in airports around Ireland to keep the disease out of the country. All marts along the border counties have been suspended since the previous Friday, February 23.
Joe Walsh, the Minister for Agriculture and Food, announces the emergency measure on Sunday night. The total suspension comes into force immediately and is intended to dramatically reduce the number of livestock movements. The ban is to remain in place for at least a fortnight.
In a related move, Central Statistics Office staff undertaking survey work are instructed not to enter farm premises until further notice.
The Government orders emergency staff to ports and airports on Sunday as the foot-and-mouth outbreak nears epidemic proportions in Britain and Continental countries begin the wholesale slaughter of thousands of animals imported from the United Kingdom.
In an atmosphere of mounting alarm, the Irish Farmers’ Association demands a ban on movement of all animals including racehorses to Britain and for the thorough disinfection of “every foot and tyre” entering Ireland from the UK. Horses and horseboxes arriving at British racecourses are already being disinfected and Sunday’s meeting at Newcastle is abandoned because of its proximity to one of the affected areas. Additional measures are expected to be announced.
Irish rugby fans are asked not to travel to Cardiff on Saturday, March 3, to minimise the risk of spreading the disease, and it seems likely the Government will urge punters to stay away from the Cheltenham Festival if, indeed, the festival goes ahead as scheduled. The Jockey Club says it will follow the Government’s request, but the decision angers the British government, which may order the meeting to be cancelled.
Five new cases of the disease are confirmed in Britain on Sunday, bringing the total to 12 confirmed cases with two suspected outbreaks. The suspected outbreak of most concern to Ireland is at Welsh Country Foods, an abattoir on Anglesey. It remains cordoned off.
British Ministry of Agriculture officials continue tests on the suspect sheep found at the plant over the weekend. Final results of the tests are not available until Monday morning.
A 10-mile exclusion zone is ordered around the Gaerwen plant, which is located adjacent to the Menai Suspension Bridge. However, both exporters and the Farmers’ Union of Wales believe the foot-and-mouth virus is, in fact, present in the plant, which is located less than 15 miles from Holyhead.
British veterinarians are alarmed at the increase in new cases. An epidemic is to be declared if the number of new cases reaches more than 30 per day.
(From: “All marts closed in threat of epidemic” by Ralph Riegel, Irish Independent, http://www.independent.ie, February 26, 2001)
St. John is the eldest of six children born to Tommy and Lottie Mooney. He is educated at Scoil Muire Gan Smál and Synge Street CBS. He emigrates to Ontario, Canada in 1958 where he takes what labouring jobs he can find. Within six months he meets a woman named Gert Gorman who has an electrical contracting company in the United States. She and her husband sponsor him to move to Washington, D.C., where he is able to work as an electrician. He marries his sweetheart, Susie Bourke, who is from a well-known Dublin theatrical family with links to both the Gaiety and the Olympia theatres. They have two sons, Kieron and Brian. He travels widely and becomes involved in the peace movement and the civil rights movement. He remains in the United States until 1970, returning to settle in Collins Avenue in north Dublin.
The Dublin city that St. John returns to is a changed place from the one he had grown up in and proves to be the spur that inspires his songwriting. He chooses “St. John” as his nom de plume, inspired by a middle name he had been given while at school when all the boys in his class were assigned saints’ names. In 1975, he is running a theatre in Petticoat Lane on Marlborough Street, and while fixing an alarm outside a window on the first floor, the ledge on which he is leaning gives way, resulting in a bad fall. He breaks his elbow and hip and spends six months in the hospital recuperating. It is during this time that he takes to songwriting in earnest.
St. John is an extrovert who loves people. He is a voracious reader with a particular interest in Irish history. His son Kieron recalls his father writing “The Rare Aul Times” during this recovery period and singing it to his family. The Dublin City Ramblers is the first band to cover the song, but it is Danny Doyle’s version that achieves a real breakthrough, spending eleven weeks in the Irish Singles Chart, reaching No. 1 in 1978.
In 1978, St. John writes “The Fields of Athenry,” a tale of a man exiled to Botany Bay for stealing food to feed his family during the Famine. It has been recorded by several artists, charting in the Irish Singles Chart on a number of occasions. A recording by Paddy Reilly, which is released in 1982, remains in the Irish charts for 72 weeks.
St. John pays close attention to the melding of lyric and melody and has particular form in writing memorable melodies that sound timeless, resonating deeply with listeners across all walks of life. His songs sometime express regret for the loss of old certainties, for example, the loss of Nelson’s Pillar and the Metropole Ballroom, two symbols of old Dublin, as progress makes a “city of my town.”
St. John describes his chosen craft with affection. “Songs are magic carpets. They can tell a story over and over again without boring the pants off the listener and maybe take us out of ourselves for a few moments of peaceful escapism. With easy to remember melody lines, the words can tell of times and events in our daily lives that are worth noting or remembering.”
St. John’s songbook consists of hundreds of compositions, including “The Ferryman,” “Waltzing on Borrowed Time” and “The Furey Man” and are recorded by over 2,500 artists. He is a founding member of the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) and is always generous and supportive of younger writers, some of whom he continues to mentor well into his 80s.
St. John is surprised and delighted at the affiliation that emerges between “The Fields of Athenry” and rugby and football sporting events. He is present in Croke Park in 2007 when Ireland beats England in the Six Nations, and where the song is sung three times over. It is a song often heard in Anfield in Liverpool, and at Glasgow Celtic games, and reverberates around the stadium at Chicago’s Soldier Field when Ireland beats the All Blacks on November 5, 2016.
St. John wins several awards, including the Irish Music Rights Organisation “Irish Songwriter of the Year.”
St. John lives life to the fullest, and while he suffers ill health in his later years with both diabetes and Parkinson’s disease, he never loses his zest for life. His son Kieron describes his father with affection as a man who had nine lives and lived them all to the fullest. He lives independently at home until his admission to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin. He dies peacefully there at the age of 90 on March 12, 2022. After his funeral, Paddy Reilly and Glen Hansard perform “The Fields of Athenry” at Beaumont House in Dublin as a tribute.
George Bernard Francis Clarke, Irish barrister who is Chief Justice of Ireland from July 2017 to October 2021, is born on October 10, 1951, in Walkinstown, Dublin. He has a successful career as a barrister for many years, with a broad practice in commercial law and public law. He is the chair of the Bar Council of Ireland between 1993 and 1995. He is appointed to the High Court in 2004 and becomes a judge of the Supreme Court of Ireland in February 2012. Following his retirement from the bench, he returns to work as a barrister. Across his career as a barrister and a judge, he is involved in many seminal cases in Irish legal history.
Clarke is the son of a customs officer who dies when he is aged eleven. His mother is a secretary. He is educated at Drimnagh Castle Secondary School, a Christian Brotherssecondary school in Dublin. He wins the Dublin Junior High Jump Championship in 1969. He studies Economics and Maths at undergraduate level at University College Dublin (UCD), while concurrently studying to become a barrister at King’s Inns. He is the first of his family to attend third level education and is able to attend university by receiving grants. While attending UCD, he loses an election to Adrian Hardiman to become auditor of the Literary and Historical Society (L&H).
Clarke is called to the Bar in 1973 and to the Inner Bar in 1985. He has a practice in commercial, constitutional and family law. Two years after commencing practice he appears as junior counsel for the applicant in State (Healy) v Donoghue before the Supreme Court, which establishes a constitutional right to legal aid in criminal cases.
Clarke represents Michael McGimpsey and his brother Christopher in a challenge against the constitutionality of the Anglo-Irish Agreement, which is ultimately unsuccessful in the Supreme Court in 1988.
Clarke appears for the plaintiff with Michael McDowell and Gerard Hogan in Cox v Ireland in 1990, where the Supreme Court first introduces proportionality into Irish constitutional law and discovers the right to earn a livelihood. He represents Seán Ardagh and the Oireachtas Subcommittee formed after the death of John Carthy in a constitutional case which limits the powers of investigation of the Oireachtas, which leads to the unsuccessful Thirtieth Amendment of the Constitution. In an action taken by tobacco companies to challenge the legality of bans on tobacco advertising, he appears for the State.
Clarke is Chairman of the Bar Council of Ireland from 1993 to 1995. Between 1999 and 2004, he acts as chair of Council of King’s Inns. He is a professor at the Kings’s Inns between 1978 and 1985 and is appointed an adjunct professor at University College Cork (UCC) in 2014. He also serves as an adjunct professor at Trinity College Dublin (TCD).
Clarke acts as a chair of the Employment Appeals Tribunal while still in practice. He is also a steward of the Turf Club and the chairman of Leopardstown Racecourse. He was due to take over as senior steward of the Turf Club but does not do so due to his appointment to the High Court.
Clarke is appointed as a High Court judge in 2004. He is chairman of the Referendum Commission for the second Lisbon Treaty referendum in 2009. As a High Court judge he gives a ruling on the Leas Cross nursing home case against RTÉ, that the public interest justifies the broadcasting of material that otherwise would have been protected by the right to privacy. He frequently presides over the Commercial Court during his time at the High Court. He is involved in the establishment of two High Court lists in Cork, Chancery and a Non-Jury List.
Clarke is appointed to the Supreme Court on February 9, 2012, and serves as Chief Justice from October 2017 until his retirement on October 10, 2021, required by law on his 70th birthday. In March 2021, the Cabinet begins the process of identifying his successor. Donal O’Donnell is selected to replace him. His final day in court is October 8, 2021, where judges, lawyers and civil servants make a large number of tributes to him. Mary Carolan of The Irish Times says that under his leadership the Supreme Court is “perhaps the most collegial it had been in some time.”
Following his retirement from the judiciary, Clarke resumes his practice as a barrister and rejoins the Bar of Ireland. Under the rules of the Bar of Ireland, he cannot appear before a court of equal or lesser jurisdiction to that on which he sat as a judge. Given that he was the most senior judge in Ireland, he cannot appear in any court in Ireland. He can appear in the European Union (EU) courts. However, he indicates his intention to focus on mediation and arbitration work.
Clarke has been married to Dr. Jacqueline Hayden since 1977. They have a son and a daughter. He is interested in rugby and horse racing, at one point owning several horses.
After finishing his schooling at fifteen, O’Herlihy follows his grandfather into journalism and secures a job in the reading room of The Cork Examiner. He is only seventeen years-old when he subsequently becomes sub-editor of the Evening Echo, a position he holds for five years. He also graduates to the positions of news, features and sports reporter.
In the early 1960s O’Herlihy begins his broadcasting career when he starts to do local association football reports from Cork for Radio Éireann. In 1965, he makes his first television broadcast in a programme commemorating the sinking of the RMS Lusitania off the Cork coast. After three years O’Herlihy is asked to join RTÉ’s current affairs programme 7 Days to add the required field-reporting skills to the studio-based interviews. The programme has a reputation for its hard-hitting investigative reporting, and he reports on many varying stories from illegal fishing in Cork to the outbreak of the crisis in Northern Ireland. In November 1970, the 7 Days programme comes into controversy when O’Herlihy reports a story on illegal money lending. The report is unconventional as it is one of the first television pieces to use hidden cameras, it claims the government is not responding to illegal moneylending. A tribunal of inquiry follows, and O’Herlihy is forced to move away from current affairs.
Following this controversy, while O’Herlihy is not sacked as he has fifteen months left on his contract with RTÉ, he is moved to the RTÉ Sports department. There he works under Michael O’Hehir, who dislikes him and his broadcasting style. In spite of this O’Herlihy fronts RTÉ’s television coverage of the Olympic Games that year. He also becomes involved in the production of various sports programmes.
O’Herlihy is not long in the RTÉ Sports department when he becomes a regular presenter for such programmes as Sunday Sport and Sports Stadium. In 1978 he becomes RTÉ Soccer host alongside Eamon Dunphy and, in 1984, Johnny Giles joins the panel and Liam Brady follows in 1998. Since 1974 O’Herlihy becomes RTÉ’s chief sports presenter for such events as all Olympic Games until 2012, FIFA World Cups until 2014, UEFA European Football Championships until 2012 and European and World Track and Field Championships. He hosts RTÉ highlights of the Ryder Cup in 2006 when it is at the K Club in County Kildare and continues to present coverage of Ireland’s soccer internationals for RTÉ, along with Dunphy, Giles and Brady.
O’Herlihy hosts RTÉ’s coverage of rugby union in the 1980s and early 1990s. However, when RTÉ attains the rights to cover the English Premier League in 1992, Tom McGurk takes over as host of RTÉ’s coverage of rugby union. O’Herlihy covers the Premier League, Irish Internationals and The Champions League before dropping the Premier League in 2008. He continues to cover the Olympic Games and International Athletic Championships such as the European and World Athletics. He presents the first Rugby World Cup on RTÉ television in 1987 and, with Jim Carney, co-presents the first edition of The Sunday Game in 1979.
In 2012, while covering Chloe Magee‘s progress at the 2012 Summer Olympics O’Herlihy remarks that badminton was once considered “a mainly Protestant sport.” RTÉ subsequently receives a number of complaints, and while Magee criticises the remarks, the argument is made that the incident inadvertently reflected a complex historical reality.
O’Herlihy presents RTÉ Sport‘s coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, his ninth FIFA World Cup. He fronts 18 European Championships and FIFA World Cups for RTÉ, the last of which comes in 2014. This proves to be the final tournament with O’Herlihy at the helm. He retires at its conclusion and dies the following year.
O’Herlihy attends the 12th Irish Film & Television Awards on Sunday, May 24, 2015. He dies peacefully in his sleep at his home the following day at the age of 76 nearly a year after his retirement. He is survived by wife Hillary and daughters Jill and Sally. Giles, Brady and Dunphy appear on The Late Late Show in tribute later that week. At the time of his death O’Herlihy is working on a sports version of Reeling in the Years, which RTÉ immediately cancels.
Van der Flier’s preferred position is flanker, but he can play other positions if needed. He is commonly referred to amongst Leinster Rugby circles as “The Dutch Disciple.”
Van der Flier begins his professional career with the Leinster academy. During his time at the academy, he plays with the Leinster senior team, making his debut in October 2014 against Zebre Parma. It is announced in April 2015 that he has been awarded a senior contract with Leinster.
Van der Flier is named as the Ireland men’s XVs Players’ Player of the Year at the 2022 Rugby Players Ireland awards. He also wins the Guinness Rugby Writers of Ireland men’s player of the year award for the 2021-22 campaign.
The Solomons come to Ireland from England in 1824. Solomons is the son of Maurice Solomons (1832–1922), an optician whose practice is mentioned in James Joyce‘s Ulysses. His grandmother, Rosa Jacobs Solomons (1833–1926), is born in Hull in England. His elder brother Edwin (1879–1964) is a stockbroker and prominent member of the Dublin Jewish community. His sister Estella Solomons (1882–1968) is a leading artist, and a member of Cumann na mBan during the 1916 Easter Rising. She marries poet and publisher Seumas O’Sullivan. His younger sister Sophie is a trained opera singer.
Solomons attends St. Andrew’s College, Dublin, where he is very interested in rugby. He earns ten international rugby caps for Ireland between 1908 and 1910. He studies medicine at Trinity College, Dublin, becomes a medical doctor, and is Master of the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin from 1926 to 1933, surprising those who felt that a Jew would never hold the post. When his term ends in 1933, his name is intimately linked with that of the hospital when James Joyce writes in Finnegans Wake, “in my bethel of Solyman’s I accouched my rotundaties.” He serves as president of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) in the late 1940s and practices from No. 30 Lower Baggot Street.
In a biography of Solomons he is described as “World famous obstetrician & gynaecologist, Rugby international, horseman, leader of Liberal Jewry & of Irish literary & artistic renaissance.”
Following a brief courtship, Solomons marries Gertrude Levy, who had studied with his sister Sophie at the Royal Academy of Music, London, in the liberal synagogue in London in 1916. His second son, Dr. Michael Solomons (1919–2007), is a distinguished gynaecologist, a pioneer of family planning in Ireland, and a veteran of the bitter and divisive 1983 constitutional amendment campaign.
Solomons is a friend of the founder of Sinn Féin and TD, Arthur Griffith. He contributes to the purchase of a house for Griffith. He is a founding member and the first president of the Liberal Synagogue in Dublin. He establishes a dispensary for Jewish women with Ada Shillman. In retirement he is inspector of qualifying examinations and visitor of medical schools in midwifery for the general medical council. A volume of memoirs is published in 1956. He is an art collector, including the works of Jean Cooke.
Solomons dies on September 11, 1965, at his home, Laughton Beg, Rochestown Avenue, Dún Laoghaire. The Bethel Solomons medal is awarded annually to an outstanding student in midwifery at the hospital.
Anthony Gerard Foley, Irish rugby union player and head coach of Munster, is born on October 30, 1973, in Limerick, County Limerick. He is attached to the same squad during his professional playing career. He is a member of the Munster team that wins the 2002–03 Celtic League and is the winning captain during their 2005–06 Heineken Cup success. He plays for Ireland from 1995 until 2005 and captains the squad on three occasions. He is nicknamed “Axel,” after the fictional character Axel Foley of the Beverly Hills Cop film series. His father Brendan Foley and sister Rosie Foley also play rugby for Ireland.
In March 1989, Foley leads St. Munchin’s College to victory in the Munster Schools Junior Cup. He later represents Munster and Ireland Schools on several occasions over two seasons, notably during the 1992 Irish Schools tour of New Zealand. Winning six games out of eight, Ireland narrowly loses the final game to a New Zealand side featuring Jonah Lomu. A controversial Jeff Wilson penalty-goal wins the game in the final minutes.
Foley makes his professional debut for Munster against Swansea in November 1995, a game that is also Munster’s first ever Heineken Cup fixture. He is on the Munster team that loses 8–9 to Northampton Saints in the 2000 Heineken Cup Final, and is again the runner-up when Munster loses 15–9 to Leicester Tigers in the 2002 Heineken Cup Final. He is finally on the winning side when Munster wins the 2002–03 Celtic League.
When Mick Galwey resigns as Munster captain, Foley narrowly loses to Jim Williams in a vote to decide the next captain. When Williams leaves Munster in 2005, Foley becomes the new captain, and in his first season in the position, he leads Munster to victory over Biarritz Olympique in the 2006 Heineken Cup Final. He has played in all but one of Munster’s first 78 Heineken Cup games until a shoulder injury sustained during Munster’s 21–19 victory over Leicester Tigers at Welford Road Stadium in their first game of the 2006–07 Heineken Cup causes him to miss his side’s subsequent victory over CS Bourgoin-Jallieu, as well as back-to-back games against Cardiff in December 2006.
Foley stands down as captain at the beginning of the 2007–08 season, making way for Paul O’Connell. He is dropped for Munster’s final fixtures of the 2007–08 Heineken Cup, and announces his retirement for the end of the season.
Foley captains Ireland three times: in 2001 against Samoa, and in 2002 against Romania and Georgia. His last international is against Wales in the 2005 Six Nations Championship. In total he plays in 62 matches for Ireland and scores 5 tries against England in 1995, Romania in 2001, Fiji in 2002, France in 2004, and Wales in 2004.
In March 2011, it is announced that Foley will take over as Munster forwards coach at the end of the 2011 season. He temporarily replaces Gert Smal as Ireland’s forwards coach during the 2012 Six Nations Championship, after Smal is forced to miss the remainder of the tournament with an eye condition. He signs a contract extension with Munster in May 2013. The following year it is announced that he will succeed Rob Penney as Munster’s head coach, signing a two-year contract that begins on July 1, 2014.
Foley dies in his sleep on October 16, 2016, of an acute pulmonary edema brought on by heart disease while staying at a hotel in the Paris suburb of Suresnes with the Munster squad. The team is preparing to face Racing 92 in its opening game of the 2016–17 European Rugby Champions Cup. The match is postponed as a result of his death. PresidentMichael D. Higgins and then-TaoiseachEnda Kenny make tributes to Foley, and the Irish flag flies at half mast at government buildings in Munster.
Foley is brought home to Ireland on Wednesday, October 19, 2016. His funeral takes place on Friday, October 21, 2016 at St. Flannan’s Church in Killaloe, County Clare.
On October 22, 2016, in the first game after Foley’s death, Munster beats Glasgow 38–17 at a sold-out Thomond Park. Tributes are paid to Foley before, during and after the game and the number 8 jersey is retired for the game, with CJ Stander wearing the number 24 for the occasion. Before their historic first ever win against New Zealand at Soldier Field, Chicago, on November 5, 2016, the senior Irish men’s team pays tribute to Foley by forming a figure of 8, led by Munster’s CJ Stander, Simon Zebo, Conor Murray and Donnacha Ryan, to face the All Blacks Haka. Ahead of a game against Munster on November 11, 2016, the Māori All Blacks team pays tribute to Foley by placing a jersey with his initials on the halfway line before performing a Haka. Māori captain Ash Dixon then presents the jersey to Foley’s sons. Munster goes on to win the historic game 27–14. On January 7, 2017, further tributes are paid to Foley when the rescheduled Round 1 fixture between Racing 92 and Munster takes place.
To honour Foley’s memory and contribution to European rugby, the European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) announces that the 2016–17 European Player of the Year would receive the Anthony Foley Memorial Trophy. The trophy is commissioned with the agreement of the Foley family and Munster Rugby and it is envisaged that it will be presented to all future European Player of the Year winners.
Before becoming a rugby player Galwey plays Gaelic football with Kerry. His first success at intercounty level comes in 1986 when he is part of the Kerry team that wins that year’s All-Ireland. He plays in the semi-final win over Meath. The following year he wins a Munster Under 21 Championship medal and later plays in the All-Ireland final but his side loses out to Donegal. In 1989 he plays his second and last championship game with Kerry in the Munster Championship first round win over Limerick, a game that he also captains the side in.
At club level Galwey plays with his local Currow club. The club produces three other senior Irish Rugby Internationals – Moss Keane, Mick Doyle and Tommy Doyle, an All-Ireland Minor winner in 1962, along with an U-20 Irish Rugby International, JJ Hanrahan. He plays a key part in helping Currow win their first Kerry Junior Football Championship in 1988 when they beat Rathmore in the final.
After making the switch to rugby union, Galwey is a key figure in Shannon RFC‘s side during their four in a row winning streak of All-Ireland League titles in the late 1990s. Throughout his career he proves to be a leader who can inspire and motivate players around him to punch above their collective weights. He instills a “don’t panic” and professional attitude in his Shannon team which later becomes the hallmarks of Munster Rugby during his tenancy as captain. He is seen as a legend of the sport in his native Munster, particularly in Limerick.
Galwey’s involvement in the Irish national squad is more of a mixed bag. Making his debut in 1991 against France, his 11-year international career is rarely without controversy. Owing to the selection decisions of various national coaches and selectors, he becomes the most dropped player in international history. He fights his way back onto the Irish squad, becoming the team’s captain ten years after he made his debut. In the 1993 Five Nations Championship match against England, he rounds off a fine display in the 17–3 defeat by scoring the only try of the game. His efforts are rewarded later that year when he is selected for the Lions tour to New Zealand.
Galwey’s rugby record includes 41 caps for Ireland, four times as captain and scorer of three tries; 1993 Lions tour to New Zealand; 130 caps for Munster, 85 as captain, 1 Celtic League; 10 Munster senior cups and 6 All-Ireland Leagues with Shannon R.F.C.; 113 games for Shannon in the All-Ireland League, scoring 28 tries.
Galwey has coached Shannon to two All-Ireland League victories and two Munster Senior Cups.
Quinlan is educated at Abbey CBS in Tipperary and works for a motor dealer after leaving school. He begins his rugby career with Clanwilliam F.C. He moves from Clanwilliam to join Shannon U20s in 1994. He captains the Irish Youth Team against Scotland in 1993. He normally plays as a blindside flanker, but he also plays openside, number eight and second row for Munster.
Quinlan begins playing for Munster in 1996 and captains the youths team before becoming a regular in the first team. In May 2006 he makes a comeback from a cruciate ligament injury earlier in the season to win both the AIB League Division 1 title with Shannon and the Heineken Cup with Munster after a late appearance from the bench in the Heineken Cup Final win over Biarritz in Cardiff. He captains the side from Number Eight in Munster’s upset victory over Ulster in Ravenhill Stadium in the 2007 Celtic League. He is voted Man of the Match as Munster beats Toulouse 16–13 on May 24, 2008 to win the Heineken Cup for a second time. He is part of the squad that wins the 2008–09 Celtic League. In total he holds five league medals with Shannon, as well as two Heineken Cup medals and a Celtic League Medal with Munster. He wins his 201st cap against Leinster, equaling Anthony Foley‘s club record for caps, on October 2, 2010. He becomes Munster’s most capped player ever on October 16, 2010, against Toulon in the Heineken Cup. In the 2009–10 season he represents Munster 21 times, including all eight of their 2010 Heineken Cup matches.
In April 2011, Quinlan officially announces his retirement from professional rugby, to be effective at the end of the 2010/11 season. He plays his last game for Munster on May 6, 2011, against Connacht in the Celtic League, scoring a try to mark the end of his remarkable career and going off to a standing ovation from the Munster and Connacht supporters. He joins the Munster team at the 2011 Celtic League Grand Final trophy presentation, celebrating Munster’s 19–9 victory over old rivals Leinster in Thomond Park.
Quinlan represents Ireland ‘A’ between 1998 and 2001 and makes his senior debut for the Irish national team in October 1999, as a replacement in a test against Romania. He plays his first Six Nations match against Italy in 2001. He is a part of Ireland’s squad at the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia and scores two tries in the tournament before dislocating his shoulder scoring a vital try against Argentina in the pool stages, which ends his involvement. He is named in Ireland’s 2007 Rugby World Cup squad but does not make any appearances. Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan is widely criticised afterwards for not using his bench. Quinlan takes his caps to a total of 27 by playing in the Autumn Internationals of 2008 against Canada and the All Blacks.
On April 21, 2009, Quinlan is named in the squad for the 2009 British & Irish Lions tour of South Africa. During Munster’s Heineken cup semi-final defeat to Leinster in May 2009, he is cited for making contact with the eye or eye area of Leinster captain Leo Cullen. The offence is deemed at the low range of seriousness and he receives a 12 playing week ban until September 9, 2009. As a result, he misses the Lions tour to South Africa.
Quinlan marries Irish model Ruth Griffin in Tipperary during the summer of 2008. They have one son named AJ who is born in January 2009. They later split up in June 2010. He releases an autobiography, Quinlan: Red Blooded, in 2010. He is a big golf fan and supports Liverpool.
Ward wins 19 caps for Ireland between 1978 and 1987. He makes his international debut against Scotland at Lansdowne Road on January 21, 1978 at the age of 23. He helps Ireland win 12–9 and during the 1978 Five Nations Championship he scores 38 points, a record for a debutant. He makes one major tour with Ireland, to Australia in 1979. During his career as an Ireland international he scores 113 points, including 29 penalties, 7 conversions and 4 drop goals. He plays his last game for Ireland on June 3, 1987 in a 32–9 win over Tonga during the 1987 Rugby World Cup.
Leinsterman Ward also inspires Munster to a legendary win over New Zealand, scoring two drop goals and a conversion in a 12–0 victory at Thomond Park on October 31, 1978. To date Munster are the only Irish provincial men’s team ever to beat the All-Blacks, although having played them far more frequently than any other province and joining dozens of smaller Welsh clubs and English regions who defeated mid-week All Black teams over the same period.
Ward also plays one Test game for the British & Irish Lions during the 1980 South Africa tour. He sets a Lions Test record by scoring 18 points, including 5 penalties and a drop goal. It is also a record for any player against South Africa.
Ward is the first ever recipient of a European Rugby Player of the Year award for his performances in the 1979 Five Nations Championship.
Ward also plays association football for both Shamrock Rovers and Limerick United. In his last season with Rovers, 1974–75, he scores 6 league goals. He plays for Limerick United in the 1981–82 UEFA Cup and in 1982 he helps them win the FAI Cup.
Since retiring as a sportsman, Ward has worked as a sports journalist, most notably with the Irish Independent, and as a rugby commentator for Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). He starts as a co-commentator for the 1988 Five Nations Championship, and remains in that role for many years.
Ward is currently involved in St. Gerard’s School in Bray, County Wicklow, where he is coaching the Senior Rugby team and has been doing so for a number of years. He constantly downplays his fame and success and does not even want to be in the room if another coach plays video footage of his legendary tries.
seamus dubhghaill 