Rugby in Munster: A Social and Cultural History

Conclusion

Conclusion 228 History and the modern ‘Munster Rugby’ phenomenon ‘Munster is a state of mind or, if you like, a state of heart. And rugby is the great unifying force. This was true a century ago and hasn’t changed’1 Such were the sentiments of the celebrated Irish sports journalist Con Houlihan in the aftermath of the Munster rugby team’s Heineken Cup final defeat at the hands of Leicester Tigers in 2002. Houlihan’s comments typified much of the public discourse that began to surround the Munster rugby team as it became increasingly successful in European competition from the beginning of the twentyfirst century. A consistent media image emerged which saw Munster rugby as being successful because it was unique. Relative to the rest of Ireland but particularly Leinster, Munster and the team’s home ground in Limerick, Thomond Park, came to be seen as the spiritual nuclei of Irish rugby. This spirit was built upon notions of regional identity, community solidarity and humble social roots. Episodes such as the Munster team’s victory over the New Zealand All Blacks in 1978 and the manner in which such events have been popularly positioned within a linear progression of a Munster rugby tradition have sustained the implicit assumption that the modern-day success of the Munster team is in some way a congruent outcome of the game’s historical development in the province. This has been principally mediated through journalists in both newspapers and the plethora of populist monographs that have been published in recent years.2 The widely held twenty-first-century view of the Munster rugby ‘tradition’ is at odds with the findings of this book. In terms of popular identification, the preceding chapters have illustrated how local ties always superseded any provincial solidarity. Indeed localisation was the essence of Munster rugby. With loyalty to one’s own city and club paramount, the administration of rugby in Munster was a fraught exercise at provincial level – an aspect of the game’s history most Conclusion 229 vividly demonstrated, perhaps, by the management of the game’s infrastructure in the province. Moreover, within the cities themselves, rugby in Limerick and Cork developed along distinct historical tangents with different social and cultural characteristics. These divergent experiences were expressed most obviously, perhaps, in the varying socio-geographical appeal of rugby in the two cities. Put simply, rugby in Limerick was a game of the inner city, while in Cork, it had a clear suburban bias. Limerick rugby built upon and nurtured parochial sentiment. In turn, the pre-eminence of Garryowen and that club’s ability to inculcate cross-class civic pride imbued Limerick rugby with a populist flavour facilitating a multilayered identification with place. More importantly, the junior game had a strong de facto administrative structure, allowing rugby to stave off competition from other codes. Among Garryowen’s founders were individuals who took an active interest in movements closely associated with working-class self-improvement, and the club’s nurturing of junior Sunday rugby can legitimately be interpreted as an extension of this mindset. Charles Korr has commented of the early history of West Ham United that ‘A shared interest surrounded the club, its players and supporters and also what might also be called its “role.”’3 This is a useful framework for considering the early significance of Garryowen. The club’s pursuit of the best junior talent gave the social profile of its ranks a cross-class quality, while a shared sense of community pride among the middle-class men who dominated the club’s committee meant that Garryowen resembled more a civic institution than a private club. The emergence of other senior clubs in the twentieth century, especially (the hitherto junior) Young Munster and Shannon only strengthened the popular cultural significance and the primacy of locality in Limerick rugby. Anthony Foley recalled, of his childhood in the 1970s, trips to Angela Cowhey’s pub in St Mary’s parish after his father had played in matches for Shannon RFC. The pub, club and parish remained synonymous with each other.4 The leading Cork clubs, by contrast, possessed much less in the way of association with place. This rootlessness gave Cork clubs something of the character of private recreational and social institutions for young gentlemen.5 The junior game in Limerick, played on Sundays and giving rise to inter-parish rivalry, was not replicated in Cork. Junior rugby was limited to the second XVs of a small cohort of senior...