Ulster Rugby vs Oyonnax

AFTER 60 YEARS IAN DESERVES A MEDAL! DO you ever wonder who those people are who give up their time so freely to work through the intricacies of the wonder that is the Ulster club rugby fixture schedule?

Or what kind of person willingly deals with the minutiae of administration and with the plethora of problems the sport throws up on a daily basis? Well, someone who’s given almost 60 years of his life to doing just those things, and much more besides, for his beloved Carrickfergus club and for the Ulster Branch, is the indomitable Ian Beggs, so appropriately awarded the MBE in the New Year’s Honours list. At 81-years-young, it is a timely recognition of stalwart service and commitment to the sport from someone who, despite never having played the game, became its willing servant and its spirit and soul at Woodburn and at Ravenhill Park. Among the first to send his congratulations on the award was Shane Logan, Chief Executive of Ulster Rugby, and someone who knows only too well the application and enthusiasm Ian has applied in the administration of the game, and in its growth through the amateur era to the modern professional sport it has become at the top level. “Ian has devoted over half a century to the IRFU (Ulster Branch) and his local rugby club, Carrickfergus RFC. He has served with distinction in every role to which he has been elected and has made an outstanding contribution to rugby in Ulster over the last 60 years,” said Logan. “I am delighted that his hard work and dedication has been rewarded with an MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List and, on behalf of everyone here at Ulster Rugby, I would like to thank Ian for his long and valuable voluntary services to rugby in the Province.” And Ulster Branch President, Bobby Stewart, was eager to share his delight at the honour bestowed on someone who has done so much to build, strengthen and develop the structures of rugby in the Province, and who represents the importance of volunteers in the running of the sport. “Ian is the epitome of a volunteer, always willing to lend a hand and never complaining. To give 60 years’ service to any cause is commendable and Ian went above and beyond to devote all those years to Carrickfergus RFC, while living over 20 miles away, and always travelling by train. “His commitment has been exceptional,” said Stewart who, over the years, witnessed that quality in his friend and colleague. It was a September evening in 1956 when Ian was unwittingly recruited into the administrative fold. His brother and a group of friends were, they told him, off to the Annual General Meeting of Carrickfergus Rugby Club. “I didn’t want to be left out in the cold on my own, so in I went, and to my great surprise I left that evening as the club’s Secretary! And I haven’t looked back since!” he

recalls with a twinkle in his eyes. “My father and his brother played rugby for Carrick, my mother’s brother and my cousin all lined out in black and red. I was the odd man out. I sustained a bad break to my arm when I was nine, so I think that had something to do with putting me off playing. So cricket was actually my sport of choice.” Until, that is, that autumn evening on the Woodburn Road in Carrick! Since then Ian has served as Carrickfergus RFC’s Honorary Secretary, Club Trustee, he’s a Founding Member of the Carrick 7s Tournament, and for several decades the club’s representative on the Ulster Branch Clubs Committee. He has served on a myriad of Branch committees, including the International Ticket Allocation Committee, and he’s been chairman and a member of the Competitions Management Committee, privy to the many sacred secrets and protocols which, magically, have kept rugby organised and alive for generations of players. Ian is the model of what we now call ‘the volunteer’, and as if those long days and nights dealing with the detail of what makes the sport ‘tick’ Ian Beggs somehow found time, and the energy, to be a Voluntary Steward at Ravenhill, supervising the crowds and the timetable on match days. For his selfless and tireless work the IRFU (Ulster Branch) paid its tribute by making him Honorary Life Vice-President, an accolade not lightly conferred, indeed Ian is just one of three people to be so honoured. A beacon of common-sense, the wisest of counsels, and with an encyclopaedic knowledge of rugby’s administrative crannies, Ian Beggs has been an institution, admired and respected not just by the Carrickfergus club he holds so dear, but by hundreds of people and clubs in the Province, and across Ireland, who have sought and got guidance, direction and that most elusive of abstracts: a decisive opinion! Though born in the city, and educated at Belfast ‘Inst’, Ian grew up in Carrickfergus and was offered a job with British Rail following the untimely death of his father, and it was while working in that office that he met his wife Jean, who was the telephonist. They married in 1963 and had one son, who now lives in France. The couple now live in Belfast, but Ian’s fealty to Carrickfergus Rugby Club is undimmed, and as often as he can he takes the train to watch his club sides play. Throughout the years, Ian has retained many fond memories including receiving the 2007 Dorrington B Faulkner Award – donated by the legendary Perennials club - for his outstanding contribution to club rugby. And a year later he picked up the IRFU’s Mr Boots Award – a

IAN BEGGS

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