Rugby heroes inspire the nation

I WRITE from London to pay tribute to a wonderful Irish rugby team, a group of players that gave hope, not for the first time this year to Ireland, and showed us that everything is achievable if you believe in what you are doing.

Ireland is not a thing, it is a people, a people born in the Emerald Isle, or born to people in other lands that hail from that land of beauty and culture. Not for the first time Brian O’Driscoll led his charges on a roar of green, a roar of belief, a roar of courage.

This gave people like me in London, and millions of others around the world, (including of course all those young supporters in New Zealand), a presence. So we lost to Wales. I am not worried about that because we left our courage on the field of play. Everyone gave it 100% and it was not to be. So I thank Stephen Ferris for going through years of gruelling knee reconstruction to give us those moments, to Donnacha O’Callaghan for his courage on behalf of his mother and his family, to Brian O’Driscoll for the dedication that he has unfailingly shown as a leader. He also sacrificed his body and fingers on those brave hands for his country, as did all the other men on that team, not forgetting Ronan O’Gara’s ice-cool nerve to ground his stabilising left foot with perfection before striking with his right, and with the whole world on his shoulders. And, finally, Declan Kidney, who started out his rugby influence, as a teacher in Presentation College Cork, influencing so many children at that level in the hard 1980s. That is when the dreams of the Peter Stringers, the Ronan O’Garas and the Frankie Sheehans and Roger Dineens started.