History

The history of Inishowen Rugby Club

Club History: The club was founded in 1972 by a number of far sighted gentlemen from the Inishowen area. The aim of the club was to promote the playing of rugby football in the Inishowen peninsula in County Donegal. There was no tradition of playing rugby in the schools of Inishowen at the time, so it was quiet a task to get 15 players together in order to field an adult team. For the first few seasons friendly matches were played with clubs across Ulster. Over time and with experience, Inishowen began its steady climb fielding a team every Saturday and playing against teams all over Ulster, eventually fielding two teams for several years until the recent downturn, when we reverted to one adult team.

Development: One of the problems of fielding a team was the lack of any underage players coming through. New players were usually a friend of one of the team who was encouraged to try his hand at rugby. There had been several attempts at setting up underage structures, but with limited success until the setting up of the Donegal Community Rugby Partnership in 2006, with the help of the Ulster Branch and the IRFU. This project helped us to get rugby training into the National Schools over a wide area and into the Secondary schools in Carndonagh, Buncrana and Moville. As a result we had over 70 underage at rugby training every week last season. Our underage teams have taken part in mini blitz and U13, U15 & U17 against the other teams in Donegal.

Future: Along with the rest of the country we are affected by emigration which has resulted in the loss of several players. However, with the underage rugby going form strength to strength we hope to bounce back in the very near future. Inishowen rugby club would like to thank Ulster Rugby for this opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate our 40th anniversary. Stand Up For The Ulster Men- SUFTUM