There is no doubt that the exploits of the Ireland rugby team since the advent of professional rugby has seen interest in the oval ball game rise to unprecedented heights…

Boyne RFC are no exception to this upsurge and are catering for an enormous amount of children every Saturday morning grounds on the Ballymakenny Road for the month of September before they move their training for the winter out to the Grammar School on the Mornington Road.

The children start as young as six years old and go up to twelve years of age in the mini section. Then they enter the Youth section from Under-13 up to Under-19 levels (15-1-side).

In all they would be catering for over 300 children in all of these age groups. Of course the club has had tremendous success at youth level and their products include no less than three Ireland internationals in Shane Horgan, Niall Ronan and Mark McHugh.

It is this success along with the phenomenal achievement of the national team and the Provinces that prompted an idea from long serving life member, Jim Walker, to bring all of the Trophies won this year to the club and honour the players who have brought so much distinction to the club, Shane Horgan, Niall Ronan and Mark McHugh.

As Jim says, “Every competition in European rugby was won by Ireland and Irish teams last season and we won the Provincial Towns Cup, which, ironically, is the most valuable trophy of them all, I got the notion that perhaps we could bring them all together and put them on show.

“I sat down with the fundraising committee – Seamie Briscoe and Johnny Sheridan – and mapped out a plan to put the whole thing together. We have people in the club who have tremendous influence in rugby circles from the top down and we decided to ask them to help.

“Thankfully, our requests have been responded to and we have garnered the Six Nations, Triple Crown, Churchill Cup, Heineken Cup, Magners League and of course pride of place will go to the Provincial Towns Cup won by ourselves. We feel that this is a unique array of trophies and interest will extend away beyond our own membership and we feel that the general public will also want to see this collection of trophies and have pictures taken with them.”

It just won’t involve the display of trophies, as Jim goes on to explain, there will also be other novelties on the day as well. 

“Shane, Niall and Mark have been very helpful to us and they will get us Leinster, Ireland and Munster jerseys and we will raffle these on the day. Our very popular member and Master Butcher, Eugene Kierans, will provide a ‘pig on the spit’ for the proceedings and will turn into Master Chef that day and cook it for us as well.”

This is an event of historical importance and putting such a show together is an excellent idea and one that is sure to catch the interest of the general public.

Proceedings will commence on Sunday evening the 11th of October and the trophies will be on display all evening for the young folk and late evening for the adults.

Photographers will be there to snap the occasion for those who want to capture the moment with their families.