PRESIDENT MARY McAleese invoked the words of former Ireland captain Ciarán Fitzgerald yesterday as she said farewell to the Irish rugby team on its way to the World Cup in New Zealand.
The president said the attitude of Irish rugby in recent years could be summed up by Fitzgerald’s invocation to the Ireland team in the Triple Crown decider against England in 1985: “Where’s your f***ing pride?”
Except the President left out the critical epithet, or the “colourful adjective” as she put it, saying it would not be presidential to use it.
The President was glowing in her praise of the Irish Rugby Football Union’s professionalism and the manner in which Irish rugby had evolved both at national and provincial level.
All but two of the Ireland touring party attended a reception yesterday afternoon at Áras an Uachtaráin, which was followed by a performance from Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann musicians.
Out half Ronan O’Gara was laid up with a tummy bug and prop Tony Buckley was given the week off to move house after being signed from Munster by English Premiership side Sale.
The players were greeted by the President, her husband, Senator Martin McAleese, and their daughter Sara McAleese.
Over the years a mutual appreciation society has existed between the President and the Irish rugby team. Her time as President has coincided with the golden age of Irish rugby which has brought one Grand Slam, four Triple Crowns, five Heineken Cup and six Magners League triumphs. She described it as a “golden age of achievement”.
In turn IRFU president John Hussey said, irrespective of who was elected in October to replace her, she would be regarded as the “real president for some time to come”. He recalled a speech she gave to a rugby dinner before the Ireland-England match earlier this year which he said was one of the finest he had ever heard.
Team captain Brian O’Driscoll presented the President with a signed Ireland World Cup jersey. It was clearly not the first such jersey the President had received as O’Driscoll joked that he hoped she would kit out her home in Roscommon with them once she had left the Áras. Describing her as a “remarkable” President, he recalled the greatest day in modern Irish rugby when the Grand Slam was won in Cardiff in March 2009. Receiving the trophy from Mrs McAleese was the highlight of his career to date.
The squad members were “grinning like Cheshire cats” following the Áras invitation, he told her. “You’ve been incredibly generous to Irish rugby and generous to us as a squad. We’ve experienced a huge amount of your time through the years.”
The team leaves for New Zealand next Tuesday and their first game is on September 11th against the US. The President does not leave office until November so, in the event of Ireland winning the World Cup, they could be back to meet her in the Áras again.
