Garda College Team Celebrate 25th Anniversary

A 25th Anniversary event was recently held at Garda College Templemore, to commemorate the achievements of the Garda College Rugby team of 1990/91.

They reached the final of the Gleeson Cup in 1990 and were defeated by Waterford IT. However, the following year the student Gardaí managed to overcome the might of Waterford IT, beating the students 6 points to 3 in a thrilling affair in Donnybrook.

The Waterford team at the time had a number of prominent players such as Ben Cronin playing at 8 and Nicky Barry at 10.

The Garda College also fielded a number of big hitters including Garyowen’s Dara O’ Sullivan at 7 and the team were coached by such names as Phil Orr, Mick Doyle and Eddie O’Sullivan.

The organiser of the event, Rory Corcoran, who was a member of the winning Garda College side said “We met each other at the Garda College when we joined the Force, but were moulded into a formidable side by outstanding effort’s behind the scenes by Donal Flannery, Mick Hayes and Eamon O’Grady from the Garda RFC. It was great to meet up 25 years later a relive the great memories  of the games

This event is somewhat timely in the development of the Garda College, as the recent announcement of increased recruitment should rejuvenate rugby within the force and hopefully bring more silverware back to Templemore”.
 
The line up in the group photo is as follows:
 
Standing L to R – D.O’Sullivan, J. Waldron, D. Kelly, C. Murphy, C. Commiskey, P. Slater, B. Murphy, S. Dennehy, N. Murphy, B. Gill, G. Ware, M. Nagle, P. Kelleher, D. Flannery, R. Verling, M. DeLong, T. Grace, E.O’Grady.
Sitting L to R – E. Hogan, M. Mulryan, K. Donnelly, R. Campion, Supt. P. McCabe, S. Philpott, M. Shanley, R. Corcoran, E. Considine, T.O’Connell.