Ireland bids final farewell to Foley
Shannon Rugby Club sits in the shadow of Thomond Park. It is a vibrant place, a place of laughter. Yesterday there were only tears. For days now Shannon Rugby Club has been a shrine.
anthony Foley started his career here and fittingly it has been the epicentre for the grief of a nation since he passed away in Paris last weekend at the age of just 42.
Thousands have come to lay flowers, rugby shirts lie neatly at the gates it shares with Munster rugby club, his other team.
They gathered there again yesterday in their numbers to pay their respects on the day when his funeral service was being held in the village of Killaloe, County Clare.
at noon, the bells at Limerick’s Saint Mary’s Cathedral in Bridge Street peeled in his memory. Inside the rugby club, those who hadn’t been able to make the funeral were still resplendent in their blue and black club ties. They held their own minute’s silence.
In the street outside, people stood in quiet contemplation. as the bells chimed, two ladies fought back tears and looked to the heavens. Passing cars stopped and turned off their engines. a boy on a bike halted. Even a man driving a horse and cart put down his reins.
It was the same all over Limerick yesterday. a stand-still for their favourite son.
In every coffee shop, pub and rugby club in the city this week, Foley stories have been traded. he was a hard man, a fair man, a family man, a happy man, a Shannon man and a Munster man, they say. a man who lived life to the full.
Pictures of his smiling face lifting the heineken Cup with Munster have cropped up all over the place. above a bank, in the window of a Chinese restaurant, in houses all over the city. In a garden next to a statue of the Virgin Mary.
Peter McGilvray is typical of the thousands of ordinary men and women who came to Shannon Rugby Club to pay their last respects and ended up leaving in tears.
‘he may have found fame round the globe but anthony was one of us, a man from this part of Ireland who was a legend who never forgot his roots,’ said the 69-year-old, who had travelled down from Dublin especially to pay his last respects. ‘It’s fitting that it is here at the Shannon Rugby Club, where it all started for him, that everybody is gathering in his honour.’
McGilvray brought with him an Ireland international shirt. he placed it alongside the Munster colours at the gates. Below where he left it was a sign with the motto of Shannon Rugby Club: ‘To the brave and faithful nothing is impossible.’
a few yards away was a collection of odd socks from every rugby club in the area that spelt out Limerick. There were teddy bears, hand-written notes from primary school children as well as poems.
although clearly upset, McGilvary managed to keep it together as he surveyed the tributes outside the gates as the Shannon and Munster flags above him flew at half-mast.
Like many before him, he then queued up to sign the book of remembrance that had been placed below a picture of Foley at his barn-storming best handing off a couple of opponents when playing for Shannon.
It was only when he walked into the main clubhouse and went past the bar that his emotions took hold. a head and shoulders picture of a smiling Foley in the Ireland strip that he wore on his debut against England in 1995 pushing him over the edge.
‘I remember that game at Lansdowne Road,’ said McGilvary, wiping a tear away from his eye. ‘I think we lost that one but anthony didn’t lose that many, did he?
‘I was there when he lifted the heineken Cup with Munster. he brought us all joy.
‘he was only 42. Look at that picture, he hasn’t changed much since then. Why did this happen? Why did he go so young? It’s just so, so sad.’
Limerick and the whole of Ireland continue to ask that question. But it is into this environment that Munster and Glasgow Warriors will attempt to play their European Champions Cup match at one o’clock today. It will not be easy.
When the teams arrive at the stadium, they will drive in the main gates and set eyes on the shrine which has been set up in Foley’s memory.
Glasgow coach Gregor Townsend, who attended his friend’s funeral yesterday, wants his team to take a good look and be inspired by Foley’s memory. To take strength from what he achieved in the game. he knows everybody inside the soldout stadium, in fact every neutral, will want Munster to win.
But Townsend will tell his players it is okay to play to win against Munster. It is what Foley, or axel as he was known, would have wanted. What he would have done himself.
‘axel was a winner and would want us to go out there and give our all against Munster,’ Townsend told Sportsmail. ‘he was a great man and a great rugby player.
‘Munster will come out all guns blazing against us and want to win it for axel. It is in the Dna of Munster, now and in the past, to be aggressive, to go out there and win.
‘What hit home to me being at his funeral, and it will also hit home to me at the game today passing the tributes to him outside the ground, is how inspiring a life he had, how much he was loved, what he had achieved.
‘There were British and Irish Lions turning out in his honour at his funeral, some travelling long distances. There were young boys there from local rugby clubs lining the streets.
‘It was inspiring to me to have known him and to be at the funeral. Playing a game in his memory should be enough to inspire both sets of players and I really hope it inspires ours for what will be an emotional and memorable occasion for everybody.’
In memory of Foley, the no8 jersey he wore with pride for Munster will be retired for the match. CJ Stander will wear no24 instead.
a Book of Condolence will be open for all supporters with proceeds from a special commemorative match programme, documenting anthony’s life in rugby and the tributes paid to him in recent days, going towards a fund or charitable cause to be agreed upon by the Foley family.
a minute’s silence will be observed. Before kick-off, in recognition of Foley’s lifelong association with Shannon RFC, the Munster Rugby Supporter’s Club Choir will perform There Is An
Isle, with soprano Sinead o’Brien joining them to perform ‘Stand Up
And Fight, songs associated with the respective clubs. Young players from Shannon and his former school of St Munchin’s will form a guard of honour as the teams take to the field.
as the shadows started to fall in Limerick last night, they continued to come. They continued to pay their respects at the gates. They continued to stand at the shrine.