Blood And Thunder By Liam O’Callaghan

Despite the political partition of the island, Ireland competes at rugby internationally with an all-island team – and with a bespoke anthem that nobody loves but everyone tolerates. Ireland has become a leading rugby nation despite its tiny population and the fact that the sport is only the fourth most popular team game on the island by participation. Liam O’Callaghan’s book shows that the rise of Irish rugby is inextricable from the tensions, debates and divisions – of politics, religion and class – that have defined modern Irish history. In ‘Blood and Thunder’ O’Callaghan traces the sequence of events that led Ireland’s private Catholic secondary schools to embrace rugby – a game of the Anglo-Protestant elite – rather than soccer or Gaelic football: a choice that may have more to do with Ireland becoming a major rugby nation than any other factor.