DOCUMENTARY ON ONE
SUN 11TH JULY, 2021 @6PM ON RTE RADIO 1
IN 1982 the Irish men’s rugby team did something they hadn’t done for over 30 years — beat England, Scotland and Wales to win the famed Triple Crown.
It was an astonishing turnaround for a team that had been forced to sneak out of the country just a few months earlier.
Ireland’s rugby team had found itself at the centre of a major storm after the IRFU accepted an invitation to travel to apartheid South Africa to play the Springboks in the summer of 1981.
At the time South Africa was shunned by the international sporting community for the policy of apartheid — a system of racial segregation and white supremacy.
The decision to tour South Africa split the Irish rugby team and split the nation and had far-reaching consequences. Players lost their jobs, Irish athletes were boycotted in other events and the country’s reputation took a battering on the international stage.
So how did the Irish rugby team go from being a team the national broadcaster refused to cover; a team the national airline wouldn’t carry; to a team of national heroes in the space of a few months?
Contributors include:
Tony Ward, Gerry McLoughlin, Hugo MacNeill, John Robbie, Dion O’Cuinneagain and Errol Tobias
Narrated by David Coughlan
Produced by David Coughlan & Donal O’Herlihy
SHORTER VERSION
In May 1981 the Irish rugby team were forced to sneak out of the country, but just a few months later they were national heroes.
This is the story of Ireland’s tour of South Africa at the height of apartheid that split the team and split the nation and somehow led the side to glory.