Louis Magee is a grandson of the famous Louis Magee, who captained Ireland to win the Triple Crown in 1899 and whose brothers also scaled the sporting heights - Jim, who accompanied him on the Lions tour of South Africa in 1896 but who never played for Ireland at rugby but was capped as an international cricketer; and Joe, who was twice capped for Ireland at rugby, but who was more associated with athletics and who, as one of two Irish delegates, attended the first meeting of the International Olympic Committee in Paris in 1896, under the chairmanship of Baron de Coubertin, father of the modern Olympic Games.

In assuming the highest office in Irish rugby at the IRFU's Annual Council meeting in the Aviva Stadium today, Louis Magee also enriches a proud Bective Rangers club distinction of having previously provided Union Presidents - John Hamilton O'Conor (1911-12), William G. Fallon (1949-50), Michael Cuddy (1993-94) and John Lyons (2008-09).

A measure of the extent to which the Magee family is synonymous with 'the Rangers' is that when Louis joined in 1968 he became the third generation of the family to wear the club's distinctive red, green and white hooped colours. Currently the fifth generation of the family plays in the underage minis!

An outstanding second row forward, who was capped 17 times for Leinster between 1973 and 1979 and who was chosen for a final Irish trial in 1979, Louis was a first team club player from 1968 to 1986. He was elected club captain on three occasions, highlighted by the club's Centenary Year of 1981-82.



Following retirement in 1987, he coached at various levels at the club, becoming director of rugby from 1991 until 1994, and being elected President in 1997-98.

Joining the Leinster Branch Executive in 1996, he became Branch President in 2003-04, the same season he was elected to the IRFU.

Since then he has held a variety of key roles in the Union, highlighted by his appointment as Chairman of the Performance Committee from 2009 to the present day; as a member of the Domestic Game Committee from 2004 to 2013 and as the IRFU representative to the Exiles Committee from 2008 to 2014.

Educated at Marian College, Ballsbridge, which he attended from 1958 to 1968, the new IRFU President qualified from UCD with a BSc degree followed by H.Dip. Ed. in 1971, before returning to Marian College as a teacher, where he remained for 36 years before retirement in 2007.

Married to Susan, daughter of late Golfing Union of Ireland General Secretary Bill Menton, he has four children - Peter, David, Louis and Clara - and five grandchildren - Alison, Erica, Eva, Louis and James.