– I thought Philip was dead’

and Rainey, who had no memories of those desperate moments after the bomb, would only discover the extent of Irwin’s heroics when the three met up over 20 years later to discuss the tragedy for a documentary.

Carr’s first memory of the incident is being taken in an ambulance to the Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry when he heard two people had died. “I thought it was Davy or Philip,” recalled Carr, who was the most seriously injured of the trio, having suffered cracked ribs, internal wounds and injuries to his knee and ankle that would bring a premature end to his rugby career. The man hailed by Irwin as “the Richie McCaw of his time” would never play for Ireland again.

“If it had happened now, sports medicine would probably have allowed me to play again and in some ways I feel guilty that I didn’t play again,” said Carr, who now works for Invest Northern Ireland after a spell as a sports broadcaster.

“But I wasn’t right. After the bomb, I changed as a person. I still wish I was the carefree guy before it, but, since then, I have been very sensitive and almost too empathetic to others.”

Rainey, like Irwin, had only superficial injuries and the pair, remarkably, would return to Ireland training the following week and both go to the World Cup. “I was at training again on Monday morning,” added Irwin, who was appointed captain of Ireland for the tour of France in 1988. “My car was a write-off and I lost money on the insurance. There was a lot of goodwill from the Irish rugby community but it was an amateur game and we didn’t receive any financial support.

“We got a few hundred pounds from the Northern Ireland Office for being involved in an ‘incident’ but in my mind, though, we were alive and that was all that mattered. Many people had to go through much worse than we did.”

The biggest impact for Rainey – who would eventually win his first Ireland cap against New Zealand in 1989, alongside Irwin – was on deciding whether he wanted to bring his young family up in Northern Ireland. “It made me realise that whatever your plans are in life, everything can change in an instant. We were lucky that day. So many people were killed or badly injury during that period. I looked for jobs in England, but realised that anything can happen anywhere. I am glad I stayed.”

Irwin, who now runs a GP practice in Belfast and has been the Ulster team doctor since the 1990s, missed out on captaining Ireland in 1988 because of a back injury, which he thought may have been a consequence of the blast, but insists that 30 years on he stills feels lucky, not bitter.

“You have to make the most out of your life and I am very aware that we were three of tens of thousands of people who were affected at that time. I don’t feel bitter, just proud to play for Ireland.” the series,” Young said. “It’s a hard pill to swallow, if you’ve got 70-odd caps for his country and not made a Lions tour. Joe, if he doesn’t get on the plane, has potentially got another crack, he’s young enough. Hask probably hasn’t. That will eat away at him deep down. He’s 32 now and probably feels deep down it’s unlikely he’s going to have another crack.”

Haskell will be joined in Argentina by Nathan Hughes and Launchbury, whom Young says could have done nothing more to merit Lions selection. Yet there was no room for hooker Tommy Taylor, scrum-half Dan Robson, lock Matt Symons, flyhalf Danny Cipriani or wing Christian Wade.

“I’m surprised for a team that is sitting at the top, how few representative players we’ve got,” Young said. “You look at the Premiership teams below us, most of them have got more representatives on the Lions and England.”

Wade, 26, may be stuck on one cap but he needs just two more tries to set the record for most tries in a Premiership season. For all his attacking potency, Young feels he is unfairly judged to be a defensive liability because he is 5ft 8in.

“Over the last couple of seasons, he has worked so much on his defence and he is now one of the best defenders within our team,” Young said.