IRFU 150th Anniversary - International Stamp

The 2024/2025 rugby season marks 150 years of rugby in Ireland.

The first team was founded by Dublin University students in 1854 and would become the first organised Rugby Football Club. By 1879, there were two unions – the Irish Football Union, overseeing most southern clubs, and the Northern Football Union, which managed rugby clubs in the Belfast area.

From 1879, the two operated as one: the Irish Rugby Football Union. Irish rugby has been managed on an all-Ireland basis ever since, proof that strength is found in unity. In 1909, the Irish rugby team had its first international success when it beat France. In 1948, the team won their first Grand Slam in the Five Nations with a win against Wales, and in 1949 they achieved a Triple Crown win.

Irish rugby has gone from strength to strength over the intervening years, winning the Grand Slam four times, and the Triple Crown six. Since the Rugby World Cup began in 1987, Ireland has qualified each time, although it has yet to win the title.

But perhaps the greatest achievement of Irish rugby is its vast grassroots popularity, with about 60,000 Irish players, from local to international, as well as countless fans and supporters.

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