Spring ‘66: when Mullingar Rugby Club travelled to Staffordshire...

Some 56 and a half years ago, Ireland was getting ready to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Easter rising, but in Mullingar there was another reason for celebration, with Mullingar Rugby Club travelling to England for a challenge tour and recording the first ever cross-channel victory by the club, or indeed any Mullingar rugby team.

Staffordshire was their destination, in the industrial heartland of England, and specifically, the town of Newcastle-under-Lyme near Stoke-on-Trent.

In the opening match of the tour at Lilleshall Road, Mullingar enjoyed a 13-5 win over their host club on April 9, 1966. Charles Smyth, Jimmy Handley and Buddy Shaw were among the scorers as the Mullingar men ran out winners.

Mullingar led 8-0 at half-time, and completed their victory with a try from Smyth. However, the celebrations were marred by an injury to Shaw, who fractured his leg in what was practically the last kick of the game, colliding with a Newcastle player.

Star forward Buddy was taken to North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary, where he was kept for the remainder of the weekend until the Mullingar contingent’s flight home on Easter Monday. He did not return to competitive rugby with Mullingar for over a year.

The Mullingar side which took on Newcastle-under-Lyme was as follows: P Shaw, K Darby, R Tyrrell, D Murphy, J Handley, L Osborne (capt.), D Gibson-Brabazon, W Turner, A Hill, W Gibson, J Dunne, T Evans, P Cooney, D O’Neill, C Smyth.

After the game, a mayoral reception was arranged at the pavilion in Newcastle-under-Lyme, where the Mullingar men were introduced to the town’s deputy lord mayor, Cllr W Vernon. Dr Trevor Winckworth presented a silk tricolour to the mayor, and a special linen cloth on which was emblazoned all of the coats of arms of the main towns of Ireland, including Mullingar.

On the Saturday night following the game, a formal dinner was held at the Burrough Arms, Newcastle-under-Lyme, and the vice-chairman of the English club, Terry Quinn, received a history of his Irish ancestry and a framed copy of his coat of arms, with Lt Col John P Kane, Mullingar, responsible for much of the research involved.

To the president of the club, Mullingar presented a poplin pennant with the legend ‘Mullingar v. Newcastle Easter 1966’. The pennant was in Mullingar colours.

A dance followed the function, and on Sunday, following a shield challenge, the clubs went to the Chetwood Arms at Pipegate, Stoke, where the Mullingar contingent won a ballad session without, as the Westmeath Examiner correspondent put it, “serious opposition”. What clinched it for Mullingar was a rendition of ‘An Puc Ar Buile’ in strong Connemara dialect by Alan Hill.

On Easter Monday, April 11, 1966, the teams went to a Derbyshire hotel where they were treated to a reception en route to Manchester airport. The flight home followed, with the unfortunate Buddy Shaw greeted by an ambulance on the tarmac at Collinstown, and conveyed to the County Hospital in Mullingar.

The tour in Staffordshire brought a largely successful end to Mullingar’s 1965/66 season.