The only crown Dev would have wanted is up for grabs tomorrow

MY earliest memory of anything to do with rugby was the horror of the Christian Brothers in the early 1950s at the news that Eamon de Valera described rugby as his favourite game.

The Brothers gathered in the schoolyard in Tralee to talk as if their whole world was caving in. Little did we realise then that we were witnessing shock and awe. They could hardly have been more stunned if the Long Fellow had publicly renounced his religion.

That was the era of the ban in Gaelic Games. People were suspended by the GAA for playing, or even attending, “foreign games”. The Christian Brothers played the part of enforcers, so the idea that Dev could prefer a foreign game just blew their narrow minds.