A chance to show Ireland at its best

Next year’s Rugby World Cup in England will mark 20 years since Nelson Mandela used the 1995 competition in South Africa to bring that beautiful country’s irreconcilable, almost-at-war cultures together.

By wearing Springbok captain Francois Pienaar’s jersey to the final Mandela — who died a year ago yesterday — did more to unite his country through that one magnificent and selfless gesture than decades of tentative, uncertain political engagement had achieved. He used rugby’s biggest stage to declare his core and defining belief — only a society united as one can be truly successful. The intervening decades have done nothing to diminish that empowering credo.

Yesterday’s formal and long-awaited announcement that a cross-border bid for Ireland to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup is a declaration of ambition on such a grand scale that it deserves a similarly profound and far-reaching response. That it is a 32-county bid must be a huge cause of satisfaction right across this island. That the bid could not be made without the co-operation and generosity of the GAA — several GAA stadiums would host games if the bid is successful — must be a cause for even greater celebration as it shows a confidence and unity that, if no longer novel, is still remarkable. This is especially so in a society where sport was, until recently, used to divide communities rather than celebrate natural human commonalities.

Several countries — South Africa and Argentina at least — will launch counterbids but that is to be expected. Indeed, the challenge of securing the finals seems a perfect opportunity to mobilise the Irish diaspora and the wider sporting communities across the island. That campaign will be of significance even if the objective is not realised. It will show us to the world in a way we have not been seen before, so it is important that we put our best foot forward.

Two years ago, Britain used the London Olympiad to rebuild community pride across that land. Next year’s Rugby World Cup is being used to strengthen that legacy in a way that is paying huge social and — hopefully— economic dividends. As it seems unlikely that we might ever successfully bid to host the Olympics or football’s World Cup, then this may be our best opportunity to show the world how we can prepare for, manage, and deliver an event of this scale.

In a little over 12 months we will be on the cusp of marking a very significant event in the island’s history, one that led to the independence of the 26 counties of the Republic. Since then every effort, political or paramilitary, terrorist or cultural, to create a united Ireland has failed. It is uplifting, and it must retore some considerable degree of faith in humanity that sport — and two sports’ organisations not always happy to co-operate — has succeeded where bomb and bullet, diatribe and hatred have failed. But then, Nelson Mandela proved that two decades ago.

This is a project worthy of a national effort and each of us should play our part in what could be a great achievement for all of this island. Munster’s motto, “to the brave and faithful, nothing is impossible”, seems appropriate once again.