It’s hard to credit that Axel passed away eight years ago last Wednesday, that at this point eight years ago Irish rugby and most of all Anthony Foley’s family and friends were in collective shock and mourning. The stunned Red Army in Paris, the vigil outside Thomond Park, Noel “Buddha” Healy leading Thee Is An Isle, the funeral in Killaloe, Olive’s extraordinary tribute, Munster beating Glasgow with 14 men.
The profound sense of shock was, of course, due to his age. Only the good die young and all that, but at 42 Axel was just too young to be lost to Olive and their boys, Tony and Dan, who were 11 and eight at the time, to his parents Sheila and Brendan, and to his sisters Rosie and Orla.
Above all else there was just the sheer cruelty of that, and them sharing their grief with us.
Perhaps too it was because the Foley clan have been so steeped in Limerick, Munster and Irish rugby, arguably like no other family. After all, a father who was part of Munster’s famous win over the All Blacks and a son and daughter who, like him, also played for Ireland. And all of them always seemed to be so visible, so unstinting in their support of Munster.
Undoubtedly it was also because of Axel’s profound impact in such a tragically short life as both a player and coach. This reporter can only remember covering one Munster Schools Senior Cup final when St Munchin’s lost to PBC in 1992 in Thomond Park despite the tireless efforts of a young bull of a boy at number eight bursting a gut when seemingly man-marked by all 15 opponents, having captained them to the Junior Cup three years earlier.
Axel’s career would travel through the amateur and professional eras and transcended both Munster and Ireland. There’s no doubt he was old school, and like plenty of his vintage, professionalism was good for him. But the reverse was even truer. Shannon, along with Cork Con, Garryowen and Young Munster, fuelled the AIL, which in turn fuelled Munster in the search for their Holy Grail, which also fuelled both Leinster and Ireland.
Foley was at the core of the Irish rugby renaissance. It is so fitting that he was the man to finally lift the Heineken Cup when Munster did fulfil their Magnificent Obsession in Cardiff in 2006.
The following morning, he and Olive were sitting down at breakfast in the Clarion Hotel, the Cup standing proudly on the ground alongside them. He said the celebrations would last for days, that they had to be memorable too (well, as much as they could be remembered!) because that would make everyone them want to relive them again. And they did, two years later.
It is not trite or cliched to say that Axel’s legacy and spirit live on, and always will. That is also one of the consequences of him being lost so young.
Both the New Zealand Maoris and Connacht have commemorated him by presenting jerseys prematch at Thomond Park to coincide with anniversaries of Axel’s passing. As moving as any gesture was the Irish squad facing the haka by forming a figure of eight, with CJ Stander to the front of other Munster players, before Ireland’s breakthrough win over the All Blacks in Chicago on November 5th, 2016 in the first Irish international since his death.
That tribute was repeated before the World Cup quarter-final in the Stade de France, which was on October 14th, two days before the seventh anniversary of his passing.
Given Ireland’s first Test since this week’s eighth anniversary is also against New Zealand at the Aviva Stadium on November 8th, the players will surely consider repeating the gesture. Of course, this would serve to generate an additional emotional charge for the Irish players and the home crowd. But Foley’s career and life deserves to be honoured too.
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