Although the sport went through different phases, names and renames over in Canada and in the USA from the early 1980's, it was way back in the year of our Lord 1997 that the sport of Wheelchair Rugby reached the Emerald Isles. This was thanks mainly to the efforts of the Big Man himself, Garrett Culliton. Garrett comes from a strong rugby background and after seeing the game being played while he was in the United States, he was adament that Ireland would have their own Quad Rugby team. So he rang around all the quads he could think of and convinced them that this was the sport for them. Picture it! A group of people in a sports hall, trying to get to grips with a new sport and everyone is sitting in their own ordinary, everyday chairs. We didn't have a proper chair between us. The sound of chairs banging together and wheel spokes breaking was often heard but wasn't as audible as the cursing that followed. "Mind my f*@king chair" was heard more often than "Great pass".

Most of us were already involved in sports, mainly Table Tennis, but this was something completely new to us. It wasn't long before Garrett had the IRFU roped in and they provided the funds for us to purchase six official rugby chairs, so we were now beginning to look like a team. It was important in those early stages that we had someone in the know to turn to and we can't acknowledge enough the support we got from the lads and lassies in the UK. They gave us every support with the rules, game plays and they provided us with some chairs that were no longer being used by their players. Training was in the IWA Sports Hall in Clontarf and in the Community Hall in Garrett's home town of Clonaslee. It was great to have a venue outside of Dublin to train in because it's nice to shows the Jackeens what the rest of the country looks like, plus Clonaslee was central for those travelling from places like Galway and Cork as well as the Capital. To this day, these two venues are our main training points.

We competed at our first ever tournament when we travelled to compete at the Europa Cup in Leeds in 1998. We were given a special invitation to compete. None of us were classified so our first function when we got to the hotel was to meet up with some classifiers, strip off in the hotel lobby and get our classifications. The lads didn't mind stripping to the waist if Eimear Breathnach didn't. Needless to say, we didn't win a single game at that tournament in Leeds (not on court at any rate but we did win the drinking competition in the hotel on the final night and the following morning). Our one and only play was the Portlaoise Express. That was the one where we inbounded the ball into open space on the court and hoped that John Finn could get to it and fly up the court. A young Finnboy was much quicker than anything the opposition could put up against us so most of the time John scored. I say most of the time because there were occasions when John dropped the ball on the line due to his over-enthusiastic celebrations. Robbie Keane's celebration sumersault is only a patch on the John Finn "YES" celebration. The following year we competed in the Great Britain league for the first time, where we played in the second division. A couple of seasons had passed before we managed to get our first win, a close match against the Yorkshire Lions. That win was like winning the All-Ireland.

Our first trophy win came in 2002 when we travelled to Ulm in Germany to compete for the Schwaben Cup. This was our first time competing at this tournament and the last thing we expected was to win the competition. It seems that the Germans weren't expecting that either but win we did and it was a great feeling to be bringing home a trophy after so many disappointments and big losses. We have tasted success again since the initial breakthrough in 2002. We won our qualifying group for the 2005 European Championships when we beat off the challenge of Norway, the Czech Republic and France in Neerphelt, Belgium in October 2004. Then we won the Advanced League at the Bernd Best in Cologne in 2005. Our first major championships as a nation was at the 2003 European Championships in Lommel, Belgium, where we finished 11th. We competed again at the 2005 European Championships in Middlefart, Denmark, where we finished 12th. Other tournaments that we have competed at down through the years have been Rugbymania in Nymburk in the Czech Republic, pre-World Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden and the Trevor Williams tournament in Nottingham. We are hoping to compete in the US in the near future.