Ireland Captains

From George Stack leading the Ireland Men's in 1875 to Jill Henderson captaining the first Women's team and on to the present day, the role of captain may have evolved over the years but the honour of leading your country is as strong as ever. The list below shows the first game in which the player captained Ireland.

Women's Captains
CaptainOppositionDate
Jill HendersonScotland14/02/1993
Cath MullalyScotland13/02/1994
Kathryn HennessyFrance15/04/1994
Annie ParsonsScotland20/04/1994
Therese KennedyJapan23/04/1994
Aoife Rodgers Scotland21/01/1996
Carole Ann ByrneWales26/01/1997
Suzanne FlemingKazkahstan10/02/2000
Fiona SteedSpain09/02/2001
Sarah Jane BeltonJapan14/11/2004
Fiona CoghlanSpain17/05/2008
Germaine HealyEngland21/05/2008
Joy NevilleFrance06/02/2009
Lynne CantwellKazakhstan09/08/2014
Niamh BriggsItaly06/02/2015
Paula FitzpatrickEngland13/11/2016
Claire MolloyAustralia09/08/2017
Ciara GriffinFrance03/02/2018
Sene NaoupuEngland24/11/2018
Nichola FrydayWales26/03/2022
Edel McMahon*Kazakhstan13/10/2023
Sam Monaghan*Kazakhstan13/10/2023
Enya BreenCanada05/10/2024
Amee Leigh CostiganFrance22/03/2025
Erin KingEngland11/04/2026

Men's Captains 1875 - 1899

George Stack v England, 15/02/1875

Richard Bell v England, 13/12/1875

Richard Galbraith v England, 05/02/1877

William Wilson v Scotland, 19/02/1877

Robert Walkington v England, 11/03/1878

William Neville v Scotland, 17/02/1879

Hugh Kelly v England, 30/01/1880

Arthur Forrest v England, 05/02/1881

John Taylor v England, 06/02/1882

George Scriven v England, 05/02/1883

James McDonald v England, 04/02/1884

Frank Moore v Wales, 12/04/1884

William Rutherford v England, 07/02/1885

Meredith Johnston v England, 06/02/1886

JP Ross v Scotland, 20/02/1886

Robert Warren v England, 05/02/1887

Harry Neill v Wales, 03/03/1888

Dolway Walkington v England, 07/02/1891

Robert Stevenson v Wales, 07/03/1891

Victor Le Fanu v England, 06/02/1892

Sam Lee v England, 04/02/1893

Edmund Forrest v England, 03/02/1894

John O’ Connor v England, 02/02/1895

Charles Rooke v Scotland, 02/03/1895

Glynn Allen v Scotland, 19/02/1898

William Gardiner v Wales, 19/03/1898

Louis Magee v England, 04/02/1899

Men's Captains 1900 - 1938

John Fulton v England, 08/02/1902

Harry Corley v England, 14/02/1903

Ellie Allen v Wales, 12/03/1904

Alfred Tedford v England, 09/02/1907

Harry Thrift v England, 08/02/1908

James Parke v Scotland, 29/02/1908

Fred Gardiner v England, 13/02/1909

George Hamlet v Wales, 13/03/1909

Tom Smyth v Wales, 12/03/1910

Dickie Lloyd v France, 01/01/1912

Alexander Foster v England, 10/02/1912

George Doherty v Scotland, 28/02/1920

Thomas Wallace v Wales, 13/03/1920

William Collopy v England, 11/02/1922

John Thompson v England, 10/02/1923

William Crawford v France, 26/01/1924

George Stephenson v New Zealand, 01/11/1924

Eugene Davy v Scotland, 23/02/1929

Mark Sugden v France, 01/01/1931

George Beamish v South Africa, 19/12/1931

Jack Siggins v England, 10/02/1934

George Morgan v England, 13/02/1937

Sam Walker v Wales, 12/03/1938

Men's Captains 1940 - 1979

Con Murphy v France, 25/01/1947

Jack Monteith v Scotland, 22/02/1947

Ernest Strathdee v Australia, 06/12/1947

Karl Mullen v England, 14/02/1948

Des O’Brien v South Africa, 08/12/1951

Jack Kyle v France, 24/01/1953

Jim McCarthy v England, 13/02/1954

Robin Thompson v France, 22/01/1955

James Ritchie v France, 28/01/1956

Noel Henderson v Scotland, 25/02/1956

Ronnie Dawson v England, 14/02/1959

Andy Mulligan v England, 13/02/1960

Bill Mulcahy v England, 10/02/1962

Tom Kiernan v France, 26/01/1963

James Kelly v New Zealand, 07/12/1963

Ray McLoughlin v France, 23/01/1965

Noel Murphy v Australia, 21/01/1967

Mike Gibson v England, 13/02/1971

Willie John McBride v Wales, 10/03/1973

Tom Grace v Wales, 21/02/1976

John Moloney v Scotland, 21/01/1978

Shay Deering v New Zealand, 04/11/1978

Fergus Slattery v France, 20/01/1979

Men's Captains 1980s & 90s

Ciaran Fitzgerald v Wales, 23/01/1982

Willie Duggan v England, 19/02/1984

Donal Lenihan v Romania, 01/11/1986

Philip Matthews v Western Samoa, 29/10/1988

Willie Anderson v New Zealand, 18/11/1989

Rob Saunders v France, 02/02/1991

Terry Kingston v Japan, 09/10/1991

Philip Danaher v France, 21/03/1992

Michael Bradley v New Zealand, 06/06/1992

Brendan Mullin v England, 21/01/1995

Nick Popplewell v Japan, 31/05/1995

Jim Staples v Fiji, 18/11/1995

Niall Hogan v Wales, 02/03/1996

Keith Wood v Australia, 23/11/1996

Paddy Johns v South Africa, 13/06/1998

Dion O’Cuinneagain v Australia, 12/06/1999

Men's Captains 2001 - 2020

Mick Galwey v Romania, 02/06/2001

Anthony Foley v Western Samoa, 11/11/2001

David Humphreys v Italy, 23/03/2002

Brian O’Driscoll v Australia, 09/11/2002

Reggie Corrigan v Tonga, 14/06/2003

Paul O’Connell v France, 14/02/2004

Simon Easterby v New Zealand, 12/11/2005

Simon Best v Argentina, 26/05/2007

Ronan O’Gara v England, 15/03/2008

Rory Best v Canada, 23/05/2009

Leo Cullen v Scotland, 06/08/2011

Jamie Heaslip v South Africa, 10/11/2012

Peter O’Mahony v USA, 08/06/2013

Eoin Reddan v Georgia, 16/11/2014

Sean O’Brien v Scotland, 15/08/2015

Rhys Ruddock v USA, 10/06/2017

Jonathan Sexton v Russia, 3/10/2019

James Ryan v England, 21/11/2020

Men's Captains 2021 -

Iain Henderson v France, Guinness Six Nations, 14/2/2021

Tadhg Furlong v Fiji, Bank of Ireland Nations Series, 12/11/2022

Caelan Doris v Italy, Guinness Men’s Six Nations, 11/02/2024

Dan Sheehan v Wales, Guinness Men’s Six Nations, 22/02/2025

Craig Casey v Georgia, Summer Tour, 05/07/2025