Search Results for 'Ciaran Fitzgerald'

Ireland's attention was grabbed by Greystones' amateur golfer Paul Dunne who hit the headlines this week at the British Open.

Former Irish rugby player Ciaran Fitzgerald will be inducted into the Connacht Clan Hall of Fame on Saturday.

NUI Galway has joined the growing list of sponsors of Connacht Rugby to help promote both sporting and academic excellence.

The rugby club in UCG was founded in 1874, which makes it the oldest such club in Connacht. They played in the Bateman Cup competition many times and won their first Connacht Senior Cup in 1897. They have held this trophy aloft 34 times in all, more than any other club in the west, and they have won the senior league 16 times. They won the Dudley Cup for the first time in 1905. Many of their players have played for Irish universities international teams, and 10 have been capped for Ireland, several while playing for UCG. One of those, Ciaran Fitzgerald, captained the British and Irish Lions. The UCG colours are maroon and white.

The extraordinary heroics and the wonderful result in the Sportsground on Friday last unleashed joy unconfined and gave all Connacht rugby supporters a great lift. As Eric Elwood rightly said, “The players and the crowd got their just reward,” so we thought to honour the occasion by showing you the Connacht team that travelled to Ravenhill on November 19, 1958, and beat Ulster.

I recall watching the Irish rugby team playing a Triple Crown match in 1985 against England. The match was very much in the balance with minutes left on the clock. It was at a critical juncture in the game that team captain Ciaran Fitzgerald demanded his team step up to the plate with his by now (in) famous line “where’s your f***ing pride?” The team responded and delivered a magnificent final few minutes to beat England on that day. I have no doubt that Fitzgerald’s leadership was crucial to that victory. Mayo football is, to some extent, at a similar juncture right now. We need leadership both on and off the field and, more than anything else, we need to display a bit of f***ing pride and heart. After last year’s championship defeats to Sligo and Longford we need to resurrect our reputation before we slip into a downward spiral of mediocrity that could prove difficult to shake off were it to continue. Mayo looked very sluggish and tired last year and some critics even suggested that they did not appear to be playing for one another. This season, however, we retained our division one status with some credible gutsy performances but appeared to hit a dip again a few weeks before the London match.

Connacht stalwart Michael Swift captured the Player of the Year award at the province’s annual awards evening.

NUI Galway men’s basketball and senior rowing teams have jointly won the college’s team of the year award for 2011.

The former Irish rugby international Ciaran FitzGerald is among the 2009 NUI Galway Alumni Awards winners.