Munster Rugby v Connacht Rugby Match Programme
Guinness PRO14 Round 14 | Find out all you need to know ahead of Munster v Connacht. Read what Head Coach Johann van Graan and Billy Holland had to say in the build up to the game. We catch up on the latest team news and hear from Ireland Women's player Laura Sheehan on her development and rise from her Beara peninsula roots. Following her recent passing we remember Cara O'Sullivan and her fantastic contribution to Munster Rugby over the years.
Guinness PRO14 Round 14 | Find out all you need to know ahead of Munster v Connacht.
Read what Head Coach Johann van Graan and Billy Holland had to say in the build up to the game.
We catch up on the latest team news and hear from Ireland Women's player Laura Sheehan on her development and rise from her Beara peninsula roots.
Following her recent passing we remember Cara O'Sullivan and her fantastic contribution to Munster Rugby over the years.
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
REMEMBERING<br />
CARA<br />
It is with great sadness that we learned of the<br />
passing of the late Cara O’Sullivan in January<br />
after an illness.<br />
For more than a decade, Cara was a huge fan<br />
favourite at <strong>Munster</strong> matches, ever since her<br />
first appearance against Sale Sharks in the<br />
old Thomond Park in 2006, where she sang<br />
alongside a piano that had been wheeled onto<br />
the side of the pitch for the occasion.<br />
<strong>Munster</strong> were on a roll that season, going on<br />
to win a first European title, and Cara was part<br />
of that story, singing at the quarter-final against<br />
Perpignan at Lansdowne Road and the final in<br />
Cardiff in May 2006.<br />
Merging rugby with opera may not seem<br />
so out of the ordinary nowadays, but it was<br />
an anomaly at the time and very unique to<br />
<strong>Munster</strong>. <strong>Munster</strong>’s link to the dramatic music<br />
genre was already in its DNA, with “Stand Up<br />
and Fight” traced back to Bizet’s opera Carmen<br />
and famously introduced by Brian O’Brien to<br />
<strong>Munster</strong>.<br />
Cara's special musical gift and her love of<br />
rugby perfectly intertwined on match days,<br />
demonstrating how music can inspire and align<br />
players and fans alike. She helped to bring the<br />
fans to fever pitch as the <strong>Munster</strong> team ran<br />
out, ensuring both players and fans were all<br />
moving with singular purpose. Her passionate<br />
performances of ‘Stand Up and Fight’ before<br />
kick off set the tone for plenty of on-field<br />
passion that followed. She was inspired by the<br />
men in red, and she in turn inspired them and<br />
the supporters.<br />
© Frances Marshall from Marshall Light Studio<br />
Cara had an incredible career performing on<br />
the biggest opera stages of the world and is<br />
acknowledged as one of the greatest voices<br />
Ireland has ever produced. To put it mildly,<br />
Cara was a world class superstar in the opera<br />
world and beloved as a performer, illustrated<br />
by the huge outpouring of tributes in Ireland<br />
and internationally on her passing. Her greatest<br />
roles of course were that of mother, daughter,<br />
sister and friend.<br />
Whether performing solo in the early years, or<br />
accompanied by the MRSC Choir, Cara came<br />
to the games with purpose, with a job to do,<br />
and took it very seriously. A consummate<br />
professional, she was unrelenting in her quest<br />
to do her best for <strong>Munster</strong> and for the team.<br />
For three minutes, the pitch was her stage, her<br />
audience in the palm of her hand, and Thomond<br />
Park the grandest theatre of them all.<br />
Thank you, Cara.<br />
Ar dheis De go raibh a hanam dilis<br />
MUNSTER v CONNACHT | 05.03.21 | THOMOND PARK<br />
37
Change language