IRFU Charitable Trust – Curragh Race Day
The IRFU Charitable Trust inaugural Curragh Race Day took place on Saturday 8th October 2022, at the Curragh Racecourse in Kildare. An intimate number of guests were treated to VIP access to the Oak Suite (Charitable Trust guests only); including exclusive balcony views of the parade ring; a drinks reception, kindly sponsored by Diageo; followed by Silver Service lunch with the first race kicking off at 1.30pm. All guests were provided with a Racecard highlighting the eight races on the day; with special guest Johnny Murtagh giving some insights … but we won’t mention the tips!
Our guests also included seriously injured players Ciarán McCarthy and Mike Scott, as well as Bernard Jackman who had to gallop out of the Oak Suite when the URC called him up for an earlier than planned commentating gig for the Leinster match that evening. Which guests could watch in between races later on! Shane Byrne and his lovely family also joined us with Shane being put to the test by audience questions; most notable was Shane’s response to the question: “Can Ireland win the Rugby World Cup in France?” To which Shane simply replied: “Why not” – and I think everyone in the audience agreed!
We had an incredible response to our live Auction on the day which was largely due to the talents of our very special auctioneer – Henry Beeby from Goffs. Thank you to Henry and everyone who raised their hand and a very big thank you to those who contributed so generously to the auction. And thank you to our auction sponsors in particular the IRFU, Bacchus Vinos and the Curragh. In addition, we would like to thank those contributed Raffle items – a list of which is shown adjacent – your generosity is greatly appreciated.
Thank you to the Curragh for hosting this charity event and special thanks to our committee for creating a very memorable event which we hope to run every year going forward. Thank you as well to the Curragh for securing a complimentary bet for all our guests to get them going. And very special thanks to our two race sponsors on the day, and long term supporters of the Trust: O’Reilly Consulting Group and RFL Steels Limited.
Finally, thank you to Murphy Signs for their professionalism and ‘can do’ attitude; including the building of our fun and interactive Rugby Challenge Unit – images of which you can see below – where people attending the races were invited to have a go at throwing a rugby ball through the unit to win rugby prizes. For the many of you who participated and kindly donated – we are very, very grateful.
This is the first time the Charitable Trust held a Race Day – with all the proceeds raised on the day going to support our seriously injured amateur rugby players and their families. Guests, as well as all the screens within the Curragh, aired a video of one of our injured players Brendan Glynn – his story, his family, the rugby community and the Trust – which gave our guests an insight into the work the Trust does for our injured players.
