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Club History
Founded
in 1954 under the leadership of Bill Adams, The Town joined McGill and
Westmount (and the Barbs in 1955) to form a Montreal league. A year
later, a group left the Town to form a fifth team, the Montreal Irish.
As more Canadians began to play the game, the far sighted Geoff Lippman
spearheaded the acquisition of "Scobie Hall", the clubhouse that we
rented since 1971 and now own outright, to insure that all newcomers
were initiated into all the finer points of the game.
In
the summer of 1975, the wives and girlfriends of the Montreal Irish RFC
challenged the men to a fun game of rugby. Understandably, the men were
enticed, as the traditional menís sport was had not been attempted by
many women and they felt an ego boost approaching. Much to their
surprise, the ladies showed substantial athletic prowess for the game.
Because they displayed skill and a desire to learn, a few of the men
decided to coach them, and they entered the Mad River Tournament,
surprising many with the ability for the game. The team decided to take
the sport seriously and although they lost a few wives, hardcore
recruiting resulted in a strong club, who became the team to beat! Most
of the games in the early years were road trips to the States, as no
other Canadian Clubs existed within travel distance. It is rumored this
team is the first organized womenís club in Canada!
In
the late 1970ís, the Irish ladies began to feel ostracized by some of
the British contingent of the men Irish who felt women were infringing
on one of the last bastions of male sports. One of the Irish gals,
married to the President of another montreal-based club, spearheaded
the move of the Montreal Irish Womenís Rugby Team to the Town of Mount
Royal RFC in 1981.
By this time,
the team has recruited and traveled, but most especially, perfected,
the sport of rugby union football. Although there were always social
ruggers associated with the team/club, a serious competitive core group
continued and the team went on to win several prestigious tournaments
and become well respected as capable pioneers of women's rugby in
Quebec and Canada.
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