Mayo rugby club enters centenary year

A wonderful clubhouse, pitches and Croagh Patrick in the background. Teams for all ages and genders. Westport RFC has developed hugely in its 100 years of existence. The club will soon publish a book marking its anniversary. Westport is well established now and home to a thriving sports community, as one finds out talking to the club's recently appointed president John Ryan, who says, that he is honoured to lead the club into its centenary season: 

“The beauty of this club is, that it's very welcoming” says Ryan: “I've played a fair bit around the country and it's one of the most welcoming clubs to visit. We may not always have the best team but we always have the best welcome for people.”

1925 - TOUGH START

This Westport spirit was born out of an eventful history. Nothing has ever come easy to the team in blue. The club was founded in 1925. Westport native Joe Gill got introduced to rugby in school in Dublin. He then moved back to Westport as a solicitor and wanted to stay at it. As there was no team around, he started one.  

It was just a few months after the end of the Civil War. Troubled times. People were trying to put food on their table, and Gill asked people: 'Do you want to come down and play rugby?'

Not a straightforward decision, especially in the aftermath of a World War, the Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War because back then anyone who got caught playing rugby received a lifelong ban from playing Gaelic sports, issued by the Gaelic Athletic Association.

Hence, trying to get 15 players out on the field proved to be the biggest challenge in the early years of Westport RFC. So players ended up not featuring in team photos because of the threat of the ban hanging over them. 

“There are lots of photos of the earlier days with only ten, eleven or twelve guys in it,” explains Ryan. “Because the GAA players couldn't be seen with the rugby lads.” And John's wife's own uncle “got banned by the GAA for playing rugby. He was an all-round player, he could play anything. He got caught and that was the end of it.”

The ban was finally lifted in the early 1970s, just in time with successful times for Westport RFC. The club had been waiting for silverware for quite some time, when they finally got over the line in dramatic fashion in 1975. Former chairman, Joe McGovern was still a player back then. The league campaign the year before wasn't a success, and in the semi-final of the Junior Cup Westport went at loggerheads with Corinthians of  Galway. They drew twice and the third game was eventually won by Westport. They had a good team back then and it was from that stock of players that important personalities in the club's history emerged. Joe McGovern is one of them.  

1984 - FINALLY A HOME

 It's worth noting, that up until the early 1980s, the club didn't have its own facilities. The big push came in the early 1980s. Then chairman Joe McGovern was instrumental in securing the land purchase and having a clubhouse built. When Joe was young he played for Ballinasloe, then he went to Dublin to study dentistry, playing rugby for UCD. Then, he returned to Westport and lined up for the Junior Cup winning side of 1975. Westport had a good team those days, as Joe remembers:

“Back then we were playing the senior and junior league matches with the same team. That helped us develop a good team because we got plenty of games. And there was no talk of niggles or any of that. At least, I heard at my time, most of the backs, had knee and ankle problems, hip problems, but it didn't happen in the forwards. And I tell you why: because we never were that fast anyway,” Joe laughs heartily. 

But there is more than good craic about Joe's contribution to Westport RFC. McGovern changed the whole club from bottom to top:

“Back then we had no dressing rooms and always had to go to different hotels for changing. One time a lad got injured, broke his leg and we had a function for him, in the Castlecourt Hotel. That turned out to become Friday Night Fever, a popular local disco, for 15 years.” 

When McGovern became chairman, he said: “I wanted the rugby club on their own feet. I wanted our own dressing room. That drove me to get our own place. Two playing pitches, a clubhouse and lights.”

So the club put their feelers out, looking for land becoming available to buy. “Then this man came with seven acres for sale in Carrowholly. We knew, it wasn't going to be a happy buy for all the locals. The rugby club coming down, buying the farmland, which was important. They couldn't get enough of farmland in the 70s and 80s. 

“John Cox was the club secretary at the time. And I said to him 'how will we do it?' And he said, and he might deny it now if you interview him, he said: 'Joe, we will buy it first, and have the row afterwards!', which did happen!” The club had to go to court to defend, because we kind of rushed it.

“Eventually the fait accompli! The club had to pay 26,000 pounds. A huge sum back in the day. But fortunately, with the organisation of the Friday Night Fever disco in the Castlecourt, the club got a share of the profits and had saved 20,000 pounds in the bank. 

“We had four teams on the rota every night. Guys turned up every time, to do the doors, whatever else was necessary. Initially we got 50 per cent of the proceeds, but gradually our take went down. It was a huge commitment for years. Three pounds entrance, but it didn't matter, because the rugby guys were the only show in town at the time. We even had plenty of visits from the boys in blue, from the GAA club,” McGovern says with a smile.

“Unfortunately in the middle of the development, the weather turned really bad and the top soil got compressed, and ever since then we have had issues with the pitch.”

The story about acquiring the land and subsequently  building the clubhouse on it, is a classic example of how success on the pitch sparks positive development off it. As from winning the cup in '75, the majority of the team was still around when the big developments happened in the early 80s. 

1998 - JUNIOR LEAGUE WIN

Current president John Ryan himself played for the club. He was part of the 1998 Junior League winning team. “There was such a long gap to the last cup Westport had won, back in 1975. I only fully realised the magnitude when I went into work on Monday and my boss said: 'What are you doing here?' 'I work here' I replied 'Go back up there and celebrate, you'll be dead the next time they win the cup.' Thankfully he has been proven wrong on several occasions since then.”

It was an uphill battle for Westport to get the Junior League win. Nothing ever came easy for the club. “The years before winning in 1998, we were second in the league, pipped by Connemara” tells Ryan. “They were our bogey team. And when we finally managed to beat them, we got the league win over the line.”

The place in Carrowholly was packed, car park full with cars parked up the road, around a thousand people there. The clubhouse was wedged, one couldn't get to the bar. The whole buzz after the final whistle. It is even hard for eyewitnesses from back then, to remember specific scenes.

“What I do remember very clearly” Ryan explains: “When we came into the dressing room, Stephen Walsh brought a case of champagne. That was unheard of at the time.”

EVOLUTION IN THE NEW CENTURY

The club has grown a lot in the advent of successful Irish national teams. But the biggest growth has happened in the women's section of rugby in the past ten to fifteen years. 

“I started in 2011 for the Westport Minis”, remembers Claire Coghlan. “And then I came through the youth system into the seniors. I was lucky that the year I left the youths, the senior team in Westport had just been formed.”

And now Claire has even become a coach herself, taking care of the U-18 Westport girls and she is also heavily involved with Connacht Rugby as well, doing coaching work there.

“Women's and girls rugby has been growing hugely. When I was coming up, we were successful winning Connacht cups, and the visibility side of it is very important. So young girls have role models and know they can do it themselves!”

The pioneer behind the success story of female rugby in Westport is Dermot Ruddy. His work paved the way for a currently stacked youth and senior system in the club. 

“I found six girls with a teacher at a school, who were doing a bit of rugby training. And while I was chatting to the teacher, one of the girls came over and asked him.” Well, are we going to take this seriously or not?' And I liked that attitude. I said: Right so, from next season on, I will come in and do the coaching. And from there it just took off.”

But, as always, it did not come easy. The club had to invest a lot of commitment and passion: “We would have ten girls from Achill. They would come out of school at four, get on a bus in winter, go to Westport for training, finish at 8 o'clock, back on the bus,, back to Achill at around nine they're home, having tea and doing their homework.”  

All the commitment has paid off in recent years. Westport has become a household name in women's rugby, with players getting called up to represent Connacht.

And Claire Coughlan explains, it's always important to remind yourself: “Once we step onto the pitch, we are rugby players. It's never boys versus girls. That's the way it's supposed to be.”

The club life in Westport reflects that. The teams mix and go on nights out, and support each other at games. And it's growing in the same way rugby as a sport has been growing in Ireland in recent years. And there will be the women's World Cup next year with Ireland participating, which might inspire more girls and boys to play for Westport RFC. The club has had an eventful past and looks confidently into the future.