Ireland legend Donal Lenihan has admitted to being driven “mad” at how some within the GAA community view rugby players.
As a youngster, Lenihan played Gaelic games and had a “dream of playing football for Cork”.
However, when he moved to the Christian Brothers College in Cork city, his attentions turned to rugby and he went on to forge a successful playing and management career with Munster, Ireland and the Lions.
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“Some in the GAA community like to paint themselves as being more Irish than the rest of us - how is it that Joe Brolly refers to them, real Gaels?” Lenihan says in his new book, My Life in Rugby.
“During the summer break from rugby I would travel to all the Cork matches, but you would always get some gombeen shouting at you, ‘Aren’t you at the wrong game?’
“It would drive me mad that some within the GAA would see themselves as more Irish than we, rugby players, were.”
The RTÉ analyst, who won two Triple Crowns and three Five Nations championships during a 52-cap Ireland career, now feels that relations have improved but elaborated on why he thought such division existed in the first place.
“Certainly back when I was playing, I think playing rugby for Ireland, you were [seen as] a little bit elitist," he said on RTÉ's Today with Sean O'Rourke programme. "Rugby was played in the private schools."
“You had the fantastic GAA community, the club and the spirit that that induces.
"At times, maybe because of the interaction with the north when The Troubles were on, we weren’t seen in the same light as some of our GAA counterparts, and that used to annoy me, I have to say.
“Cork is a magnificent sporting county, we play hurling, football, rugby, soccer, hockey.
“I felt the GAA, when Croke Park was opened up for rugby and soccer, it was a fantastic thing for the country.
"But I was personally disappointed that the Cork county board voted against opening up Croke Park.
“You had people like Jimmy Barry-Murphy, Billy Morgan ringing me almost apologising, saying this isn’t representative of how we feel in Cork.”
Donal Lenihan - My Life in Rugby is out now.
