Currow a critical cog to Munster and Ireland
success
You often hear pundits
talk about rugby nurseries and in particular the hotbeds of Irish rugby. Is it just a rugby term? To the untrained eye the mention of the word
nursery creates an image of bedding plants and hanging baskets or else a room
full of over active and ultra hyper 3 year olds! Can’t imagine any hardcore GAA
folk describe their local club, the heartbeat of every village and town, as a
nursery for the county team.
Take Limerick for example. Munster and Ireland legend Paul O’Connell is
a graduate of the famed Ard Scoil Ris nursery on the North Circular Road,
Limerick. Donncha Ryan, Keith Earls and
Jerry Flannery are graduates of their fierce rivals St. Munchins College. Take Ronan O’Gara and Peter Stringer in
Cork. Both are graduates of Presentation
Brothers College who lead the way as 28 times winners of the famed Munster
Schools Senior Cup competition along with city rivals Christians. And add in Rockwell College, conquerors of all
before them in the 1970’s and winners of the last two titles in 2011 and 2012.
But what about those who
may not have attended such traditional rugby nurseries yet have gone on to
represent their school, club, province and country with distinction. Stand up and take a bow the parish of Currow
in Co. Kerry. In a county famed for its
Gaelic Football tradition, this parish is unique in terms of its contribution
to Munster and Irish rugby over the years.
The late great Con Houlihan once said that he was undecided as to
whether Currow was actually a village or a hamlet but he considered it as his
“own favourite little village” in Ireland.
But whatever was in the water there they have produced such greats of
the game as Mick Doyle, Moss Keane, and Mick Galwey and now J.J. Hanrahan is carrying
the mantle.
Mick Doyle
Mick Doyle, or Doyler
as he was affectionately known, won 20 consecutive caps for Ireland between
1965 and 1968 and had the distinction of never being dropped during his Ireland
career. He made a try scoring debut
against France at Landsdowne Road in January 1965 and played his last test
against Australia, again at Landsdowne Road, in October 1968 appearing
alongside his brother Tommy.
He began his playing
career while attending Newbridge College and continued it with Garryowen,
Blackrock College, UCD, Cambridge University (while studying to become a vet)
and Edinburgh Wanderers. The pinnacle of
his career came when he was selected to tour with the British & Irish Lions
in 1968 when they toured South Africa where he won his one and only cap.
When his playing
career was over he went in to management and guided Leinster to inter
provincial honours for 5 successive seasons between 1979 and 1983. This success brought him to the attention of
the IRFU and in 1984 he took over the Irish National team from Willie John
McBride and led them to Triple Crown and Five Nations Championship success in
1985. His side played an attacking style
of rugby which the country had never previously attempted but which he openly
encouraged. His mantra of “give it a
lash” suited the talents perfectly of a gifted set of backs such as Trevor
Ringland, Hugo McNeill, Keith Crossan and Paul Dean.
He went on to coach
Ireland at the inaugural Rugby World Cup in New Zealand in 1987 but
unfortunately on that trip he suffered a heart attack which effectively brought
an end to his coaching career.
Outside of rugby he
continued his full time job as a vet and he also became a respected and hard
hitting journalist with the Evening Herald and Sunday Independent newspapers
and also on RTE Radio One.
Former international
winger Trevor Ringland best summed up the qualities of Mick Doyle when he said
he was a “man of great character” and “He was a motivator. He fired players
up. He was inspirational”.
Moss Keane
Moss Keane won 51 caps
for Ireland between 1974 and 1984 scoring his only test try in a 5 Nations
Championship victory over Scotland in February 1980. He made his debut against France in Paris in
January 1974 and unfortunately bowed out on a losing note against Scotland at
Landsdowne Road in March 1984.
He began his rugby
playing career while attending UCC, playing during a period when the GAA had a
ban on the playing of foreign games, and continued it with Landsdowne, Munster,
Ireland and the British and Irish Lions.
He was part of the famed Munster side that defeated the touring All
Blacks in Thomond Park in October 1978.
He also won the 5 Nations Championship with Ireland in his debut season
in 1974 and was also part of the historic 5 Nations and Triple Crown winners of
1982. He was also selected to tour with
Phil Bennett’s British & Irish Lions side to New Zealand in 1977 where he
made his one and only Lions appearance.
Prior to concentrating
full time on his rugby career Moss was also a very accomplished Gaelic footballer. He played for UCC on 3 Sigerson Cup winning
teams and also won 1 Cork County Championship and 1 Munster Club Championship
with the student side. He also played
for the Kerry U’21 and Junior sides at full back winning Munster Championship
titles with both.
He obtained a Masters
Degree in Dairy Science while studying in UCC and when his playing career was
over he continued with his full time job with the Dept. of Agriculture.
Fellow UCC, Munster and
Ireland colleague Donal Lenihan best summed up the qualities of Moss Keane when
he said he was “mad, mischievous, marauding and magnificant”. Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen also described
him as “among rugby’s best known characters and a legend of the game at home
and abroad”.
And to sum up the man
himself, he demonstrated his deep affection for his own county of Kerry when he
said while on tour with the Lions in 1977 that the highlight of the tour was
when he heard that Kerry had beaten Cork in that year’s Munster Final!
Mick Galwey
Mick Galwey, or
Gaillaimh as he was better known, is best remembered as the leader of the
Munster team that caught the imagination of Irish rugby public in the early
noughties and who came agonisingly close to Heineken Cup success in 2000 and
2002.
He started out his
rugby playing career with Shannon in the All Ireland League and was part of the
historic side that captured 4 A.I.L. titles in a row in the late 1990’s. He made 113 appearances for Shannon in total
and scored an impressive 28 tries. He
won 6 A.I.L. titles in total along with an historic 10 Munster Senior Cup
titles.
After graduating to
the Munster set up, he made 130 appearances for them in total, captaining them
on 85 occasions. Although he wasn’t
fortunate enough to captain Munster to their maiden Heineken Cup win, he did
skipper the side to the Celtic League title in 2003 prior to his retirement.
His Ireland career was
rarely without controversy and this owed often to the baffling selection
decisions of various national coaches and selectors during this period. He obtained the unwanted title of “being the
most dropped payer in international history” after being dropped 15 times
during his 11 year international career. He won 41 caps for Ireland in total between
1991 and 2002. He made his debut against
France in the 5 Nations Championship in 1991 and after several knock backs over
the years, owing to his impressive performances and leadership with Munster, he
fought his way back in to the side and officially captained Ireland for the one
and only time against Romania in 2001. He scored two tries in his Ireland
career, both against England, the most famous of them being in the 17-3 defeat
of the English in the 1993 5 Nations Championship at Landsdowne Road. He was also selected to tour with the British
and Irish Lions to New Zealand later that year in 1993.
Prior to concentrating
full time on his rugby career with Shannon and Munster, Mick was an All Ireland
medal winner with Kerry in their victory over Tyrone in the 1986 all Ireland Football
Final as a 19 year old. He had played in
the victory over Meath in the semi final that year. He won a Munster Under 21 title with Kerry in
1987 but lost the All Ireland final to Donegal that year. He made his second and final appearance for
the senior side in the opening round of the 1989 Munster championship against
Limerick in a game which they won and which he had also the distinction of
being captain. He won the Kerry County
Junior Championship with Currow in 1988 when they defeated Rathmore and he was
also part of the St Kieran’s divisional side which also captured the Kerry
County Senior Football Championship that year.
When his rugby playing
career was over he went in to management and guided Shannon to two further All
Ireland League titles and also to two further Munster Senior Cups.
When Munster finally
reached the Holy Grail and captured the Heineken Cup title against Biarritz in
Cardiff in 2006, the players dedicated the victory to those who had tried so
hard without ever reaching the pinnacle.
Mick Galwey was the first name mentioned.
J.J. Hanrahan
J.J. Hanrahan is the youngest
player in the Munster squad for the 2012/13 season and after completing two
years with the Munster Rugby Academy he has now received a development contract
for the season ahead.
He has represented
Ireland at schools and Under 20’s at international level and in June of this
year he was a standout member at outhalf for the Ireland Under 20’s side that
finished 5th in Junior World Cup in South Africa. His impressive performances there led to a
nomination for the international Junior Player of the Year.
He first played
for the Munster senior side against La Rochelle in the opening pre-season game
in August 2012, and made his RaboDirect PRO12 debut against Newport Gwent
Dragons in Thomond Park in September 2012. After a cameo appearance against Edinburgh in
Thomond Park in the Heineken Cup he burst on to the scene with his two try
salvo against Zebre in the following RaboDirect Pro12 game. He was selected at inside centre by coach Rob
Penney and his tries owed much to his footballing ability and an inate poacher’s
instinct. He will be hoping for many
more opportunities when Munster’s international contingent are away on Six Nations
duty when it rolls around in February 2013.
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