Munster Rugby Supporters USA:

WHERE DID WE START?

FIRST PHASE:
Munster Rugby Supporters USA was founded in 2006 after Munster won the first Heineken European Cup. The original founding fathers were notable men from Limerick, who are residing in the USA, Jim O’Malley, Carl Shanhan, and John Hartnett. Nobody can accuse these men of jumping on a bandwagon, they were part of the team that built the bandwagon. Sure, Jim’s place of birth and former homestead was knocked down to expand the new stand in Thomond Park. Paddy McCarthy of Irish Connections magazine was also a big supporter, who invited a Munster delegation to NY to the Night of Stars at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in September 2006 as an honoree in the Irish Connections sports award category. That delegation consisted of Peter Clohessy, Jerry Flannery, Barry Murphy, and Roger Downer. That put Munster Rugby Supporters USA on the map and we have been growing ever since.

SECOND PHASE:
A chance encounter occurred the following year (2007) while watching a Munster game at 8 a.m., in the famous Mulligan’s pub in Frank Sinatra’s hometown of Hoboken. Séamus Brosnan met Jim and was lamenting the fact that there was not a bigger Munster Rugby Supporters network system in place. Then after a few breakfast pints Jim convinced Séamus, a microbiologist by trade, to create a website! They launched a USA based website in early 2008 and that combined with their evolving game week e-mails has been a central focus of what we do since.


THIRD PHASE:
Subsequent meetings with Glenn and Ian from the official Munster Supporters club in early 2009 helped incorporate the USA as an official branch. We are now in the process of completing the development of the USA branch via the www.munsterrugbysupporters.com website.


Mumhan Abú.


Click here to email Munster Rugby USA


Filed SB 09-Dec-2009