Rugby Towns #3 Clontarf

A meadow of bulls where a thousand years has seen two battles with the barbarians, the birth of Bram Stoker, and lots of rugby silverware. Welcome to the Parish. Welcome to Clontarf.

As the wind whips at the shore of Bull Island, the low-lying stretch of dunes and salt marshes that guard Clontarf from the ocean, ten minutes in-land, the local rugby club is beginning to bubble with the anticipation of two home fixtures taking place that day. Clontarf’s women face Longford and the men’s second team are up against one of their oldest rivals, Lansdowne FC.

Clontarf is shaped by the blustering Irish Sea on Dublin’s east coast, huddled in Dublin Bay with an industry through the centuries powered by its proximity to the water. When the club was founded in 1876, Clontarf was little more than a straggle of houses and roads leading inland from the coast, wrapped by a coastline of silting sands. It soon became a popular spot for sea bathing, and the Baths of Clontarf, a large, tidal swimming pool jutting out from the promenade wall into the bay, opened ten years after the rugby club was formed.

Nestled among the townhouses and suburbia of the city that was once home to Bram Stoker, on fields that were roamed by rulers and residents of Clontarf Castle, is the rugby club’s home, that it shares with the cricket club.

In the early years, both sports were played on the same pitches. Nowadays, there is ample space for each sport to take place, albeit with the occasional cricket ball bouncing off the reinforced windows of the clubhouse bar.

The winds coming in from Bull Island can practically blow most of Clontarf’s residents from their doorsteps and on to the fields at Castle Avenue, making the rugby club a natural social hub for the area. When we arrive, 100 or so minis and juniors, all with the red bull of Clontarf FC emblazoned on their chest, are charging around the pitches, ripping tags, and hitting tackle bags.

“We’re known as the parish club,” explains Brendan Smith, sitting beneath the high wooden beams of the clubhouse, the surrounding walls decorated with various international jerseys of past players, and the silverware from successful campaigns.

Brendan has served as the club’s honorary secretary for eighteen years. With a blue and red striped tie trailing down from his collar, and a neat navy blazer with Clontarf’s badge embroidered over the left pocket, he describes the importance of the club to the local people. “We’ve got neighbours on all sides of us who are also our members. Not many clubs have that.”

Tucked under one arm when he arrives is a slightly faded pink folder, full of memorabilia from the history of the club. ‘Splendid string bands’ and ‘magicians’ are promoted on event posters dating back to 1886. The folder even contains a hand-written minute log from a Clontarf player who featured in some of the very first matches the club played.

The earliest games were played in Belvidere, a townland called Danesfield in the east of Clontarf, adjacent to the Yacht and Boat Club, from which the Bulls inherited their red and blue stripes.

They rented a pitch for £3 and shared it with the local Gaelic football team. The agreement was that the rugby posts would be left standing on the Saturday to be used by the GAA on the Sunday.  “A lot of the residents of Clontarf would have been civil servants for the British government, who ruled Ireland at the time,” explains Brendan. “Rugby was very much a sport brought over here by the British.

“The Catholics played Gaelic, and the non-Catholics tended to play rugby –that’s just how it was in those days.

“Of course, that’s gone now,” continues Brendan. “We have kids showing up to watch a game on a Saturday afternoon, still in their Gaelic kit. Then on a Sunday morning, they will show up in their red and blue strip.”

Clontarf FC (retaining the FC in their name as they were founded prior to the IRFU) are the current All Ireland League champions, the topflight of Irish league rugby. They have played four finals at the Aviva Stadium in the last ten years, coming away with three trophies.

“Last season’s final against Terenure [College] was incredible,” recalls Brendan, “a real nail-biter [Clontarf won 29-23] and probably one of the biggest moments in our history. The celebrations went on for days.”

“Have you shown them the trophy?” interrupts Pat McHale as he enters the room, dressed as smartly as his counterpart, the only real difference being his ‘President 2014-2015’ badge that is sewn over the pocket.

Pat is the most recent recipient of the Harry Brooks Award, which was inaugurated after the passing of one of Clontarf’s great legends. The award is only given on rare occasions, to commemorate long-term commitment to the club. “My first senior game for the club was against Malone in Belfast, in 1980,” he informs us, “it was an awkward day, played with a white ball on a snowy pitch – not a recipe for good rugby.”

Having been involved in the club for over 40 years, as a player, a coach, and most recently as team manager, only hanging up his boots last season, Pat is one of the de facto historians at Clontarf.  “We were very successful in our right, up ’til the thirties,” he says, “then the war put a stop to all sport.”

In 1966, New Zealand’s Wellington Athletic RFC arrived in Ireland on their world tour. Captained by the All-Blacks legend, Nev MacEwan, they were formidable opponents, finishing the tour with a victory against the British & Irish Lions, and only a single loss to their names. That one defeat had come at the hands of none other than Clontarf. “It’s talked about more by the older members now,” Pat continues. “It was the first ever game where any side from New Zealand were beaten on Irish soil.”

The years that followed that famous victory were unfortunately not full of silverware. “We had a barren patch that lasted until the late seventies, but we were able to win a few trophies in the eighties,” recalls Pat.

Then in 1990, Clontarf won the All-Ireland Floodlight Competition, in a tough game against Bangor. “That was the start of the renaissance for us.”

The All-Ireland League then started the following season, with only two divisions.  “We didn’t initially make the cut for the top flight, but that gave the club a target; to progress firstly into Division Two, then into Division One.”

In the 96/97 season Clontarf finally got their breakthrough, winning the Division Two title, and cementing themselves as one of the top flight teams.

On the pitch, one of the biggest rivalries in the area has always been between Clontarf and Lansdowne, with only the narrow peninsula of Port Dublin separating the Northside neighbours. On the day of our visit, the old rivalry is set for another instalment, as the two clubs’ respective second teams take to the field.  “Any of the Dublin derbies are fierce,” explains Brendan. “We have been playing Lansdowne for more than 100 years, you can expect an entertaining game.”

The match is close, with neither side looking like conceding in the first half, but Clontarf eventually edging a narrow 13-10 victory. As the players make their way into the changing room, their celebrations echo down the hallway and into the bar, where club members and supporters have already started to congregate.

Cluain Tarbh is Gaelic for Clontarf, meaning meadow of the bull. It is thought that the name comes from the roaring of the wind against the sand, the typical weather that has battered the area’s coastal flank since the beginning of time, long before the first Viking boats landed there around 838 AD.

Where many ships were turned to wreckages due to the silting sands of Dublin Bay, the Vikings were able to dock; the flat bottoms of their longships protecting them from the unpredictable seabed.

For two centuries the Vikings built structured, urban areas throughout Ireland, and to an extent, integrated with the local population. But the relationship between the Irish natives and the Norse invaders was never less than fractious, eventually culminating in the most significant event in the area’s history, the Battle of Clontarf.

On Good Friday, 1014, Brian Boru, the High King of Ireland at the time, defeated the Irish Vikings in a victory regarded by many as putting an end to Viking dominance in Ireland. More than 10,000 men were slain that day, including the king.  “We played the Barbarians here in 2014, to commemorate the 1,000th year since the battle,” says Brendan, recounting one of the busiest days Castle Avenue has seen. “We had Nigel Owens do stand-up the night before, it was brilliant.”

With about 700 underneath the marquee to catch Owens’ jokes, around 5,000 turned up for the match the following day. “The people we had at the ground for the Barbarians game were as many as we could squeeze in at the time,” chimes in Pat, gleefully reminiscing the scenes of the day.

When Clontarf took to the field against the Barbarians for a unique midweek fixture, they became only the fifth Irish club side to ever play the infamous invitational team. “We had won our first AIL title only the Saturday before,” continues Brendan. “But despite the celebrations, we went on to beat the Barbarians 43-42, a thirteen-try game. You can imagine what the atmosphere was like.”

The side that season had several players in the fold that would go on to represent Ireland; Cian Healy, Tadhg Furlong and Ireland sevens player, Mick McGrath, were all involved. There is only one name, however, that comes to anyone’s mind when you ask about the stars that have appeared for Clontarf over the years: Brian O’Driscoll.

The family surname can be found written on many of the framed team photos that decorate the walls of the club’s function room, black and white and sepia tones indicating the length of time that the O’Driscoll’s have been synonymous with Clontarf.  Brian’s father, Frank, captained the club in 1976, its centenary year, playing at centre. Grandfather Bill had played scrumhalf back in the 1930s.

But Brian hadn’t initially taken to rugby. Having grown up beside the Gaelic pitches in Clontarf, that was his first sport. “He was a very talented Gaelic player as a kid,” Brendan informs us.

“It wasn’t until he went to Blackrock College, that he took up rugby. He wasn’t really enjoying his rugby there, so he came back to Clontarf to play.”

In Brian’s junior tenure at the club, the under-14s side he played in reached one of the regional finals. Hugh Fanning, the coach at the time, went into the changing room to give the boys some motivation before they went out on to the field.

“He went in there and he said ‘some of you are going to play for Leinster, some of you will go on to play for Ireland, and some of you are so good, that you will play for the British Lions. All I ask is that when you make it there, that you send me a postcard.’” At the time, the words were simply to motivate a young and eager group of lads to go out and get the job done, but for Brian, who would eventually appear eight times for the Lions, they remained an order.

“The boys went on to win the match,” Brendan continues.  “And when Brian O’Driscoll went on his first tour of Australia with the Lions, what arrived through the letterbox of the club? A postcard addressed to Hugh Fanning, with the message ‘I remembered those words you said all those years ago.’

“He was a fierce little player, and he looked just like his father,” recalls Jim Barden, the handlebar moustached, six-foot something groundsman, who has served in almost every capacity at Clontarf FC, spending most of his playing days at number eight.

Jim talks to us from his equipment shed, framed by a background of tools and machinery including a ’Tarf branded golf buggy, and tractor. A well weathered Leinster coaching jacket hangs on the wall behind him.

“I joined the club in 1972. A young man with ambitions,” he says, chuckling to himself. “I played with Frank in 1976, when he was the captain. I was also the club president for several years. I’ve toured the world with the Golden Oldies.

“When I got too old for that, I took over as groundsman, and this is where I am at now.”

When asked about the most memorable games he ever played in, Jim’s memory leaps back to a Senior Cup match at Landsdowne Road in the early 1970s.

“Landsdowne were top of the world in those days,” he tells us, “they had four or five internationals playing for them. We went there as complete underdogs.

“The game turned out to be a draw, and we lost the replay, but that game was a top match. Just an old style of rugby. Rough and ready, and a bit of blood spilt, but it was acceptable in those days.”

As we talk to Jim, Clontarf Women’s side take to the field against their opponents, Longford. The women’s team now play in the third division, having been relegated the previous season. The team initially started in 2004 but only lasted four seasons before circumstances forced them to fold.

“It was down to lack of coaches, lack of players, lack of everything really,” explains Aisling Cox, who plays number seven for the team, and is standing chair of women’s rugby at Clontarf.  “We have been going for eight years since we restarted, and although we were relegated last season, things are really looking up.

“We have a paid women’s coach for the first time ever, and we’re hoping to top the league and go back into Division Two.”

On the day of our visit, a resounding victory over their opponents makes them five wins from five; the perfect start to the season, keeping hopes of promotion alive. “You need to speak to Fiona,” Aisling tells us, when conversation turns to the recent history of women’s rugby in Clontarf.

For Fiona Coghlan, who captained Ireland women’s to a Six Nations Grand Slam and recently became the first woman inducted into the IRFU hall of fame, women’s rugby has grown a lot since her parents first brought her along to watch Clontarf, as a young girl.

“Three generations of my family are from Clontarf,” she tells us. “It’s always been like a country parish; very small, very connected, everyone knows everyone.”

Fiona now lives in one of the surrounding houses on Castle Avenue, with a view of the rugby clubhouse from her balcony. She recalls her earliest memories of discos at the rugby club, that would take place the night before each international match.  “That was always a brilliant night, I was there for the social occasions when I was younger,” she explains. “While I was in the rugby club quite a lot, growing up, I didn’t even know women played rugby back then.”

Although rugby has always been a centrepiece in Clontarf’s crown, development of the women’s game has only really started to happen in the last twenty years. “There were no team sports at all for girls,” continues Fiona. “The boys would go to Croke Park and play Cumann na Bunscoile, a primary school competition of Gaelic games – that would make me jealous. But not so much playing rugby, I just didn’t ever think about. It was never in my mind that I could play or should play.”

While Clontarf didn’t have a pathway for girls and women to play rugby when Fiona was growing up, she was at Castle Avenue when the first ever Irish women’s game was televised, and in 2003 went on to play her first game for her country.

Now, with 85 appearances under her belt, Fiona is the second-most capped woman to play for Ireland. “It’s fantastic to see that there’s a pathway there to play the whole way up, if you want,” says Fiona, on the accessibility of rugby at Clontarf.

“I’ve introduced rugby to the local girls’ school that I teach at, so hopefully that will filter back into the club. You’ve also got the Bulls, the club’s additional needs team,” Fiona adds. “It’s a sporting outlet for kids who probably don’t get these opportunities elsewhere.”

“We want to develop the club from the ground, up,” says Brendan, “we’ve hired a rugby development officer whose role is to work with the minis and youths’ structure and get the involvement of the primary schools in the area.”

Fionn Gilbert, the man taking on the job, has been at the rugby club since his parents brought him down aged five. He’s in the process of writing a coaching handbook that can be used across the board at Clontarf.

“Regardless of when kids join the club,” continues Brendan, “they’ll know what they should be doing at a particular age.”

There is a clear drive to develop across the board at Clontarf. From the first team pushing for more league titles, to the women’s side keeping their eyes on promotion, and the inclusive juniors set-up with a growing membership, the trajectory is an upward one.

“The support we get in, week in, week out, is just phenomenal,” says Pat. “The atmosphere here post-match is as good as you will get anywhere.

“The place rocks. This whole area,” he says, indicating to the four walls and high ceilings of Clontarf’s downstairs bar, “will be full. It’ll stay full until we have to throw people out.”

“The club is very much at the heart of the Clontarf community,” concludes Brendan, “We’ve got everyone involved from the juniors to the golden oldies. You just can’t imagine Clontarf without the rugby club.”

Story by Tyrone Bulger

Pictures by Christopher Kennedy

This Rugby Towns story was created in partnership with Canterbury.

This extract was taken from issue 20 of Rugby.
To order the print journal, click here.