*Brendan Foley with Gerry Norton. Photograph: Natasha Barton
Former Munster and Ireland player Brendan Foley of Killaloe this week recalled playing against Ennis at junior level.
Speaking to The Clare Echo after the launch of the Ennis club’s centenary celebration activities the Munster rugby vice president said “I played with St. Mary’s from Limerick and we played Ennis, I’m not sure if it was a league game or the cup and a man that I played against many times, big John Madigan was playing. It was a lovely day. He was playing in runners which was unusual at the time. I was competing against him for a number of years after that. We were competing against each other for a place with Munster”.
Brendan went on to recall, “when I moved to Murroe after getting married I was roped into helping Newport and they wound up playing Ennis in the junior cup. A fine Ennis side beat Newport that day”.
The Munster official recalled being “invited to a few dinner dances held by the Ennis club when Moss Keane and myself had a couple of good nights at these functions”.
Brendan added, “in latter years a few of us were involved with the Ballina/Killaloe club and we used to have matches with the Ennis underage teams on a regular basis. Ennis had plenty of players, a good club. They are bringing a lot of players through now and they have a lot of girls coming through. I was at the under 18 game in Dublin last week and Munster had three Clare girls”.
Continuing he said, “it’s good to see rugby improving and Ennis are producing some very good players such as Tony Butler and Ethan Coughlan. Ethan is with Shannon at the minute and I have seen him play a few times this year”.
