IT WAS a tournament that encapsulated everything that makes Irish rugby both thrilling and agonising. Andy Farrell's side finished second in the 2026 Guinness Six Nations, claiming a Triple Crown, but ultimately falling just short of the championship title in the most dramatic fashion.

LONG before the fictional exploits of Dumas’ Three Musketeers, the fishing village of Rush, County Dublin, produced its own trio of real life adventurers whose story rivals any Hollywood epic. At the centre of it stood Luke Ryan, an Irish privateer and smuggler whose audacious career during the American War of Independence made him one of the most notorious raiders ever to prowl British waters.