UCD Fencing Club
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[edit] Foundation
University College Dublin Fencing Club was founded in 1954 and it would seem that at that time the only other clubs in existence in UCD at the time were the Big Four: Gaelic Games, Soccer, Rugby and Athletics. Whatever the actual details, UCD Fencing Club is one the oldest clubs in UCD and has compiled a rich history in it's more than fifty years of operation. The first club president was Rev. Fr. O'Doherty who, together with former Olympic fencer Patrick Duffy, coached the fledgling club to become contenders in the Irish fencing world. In the early years the college competed well for such a new club, but the more established clubs of Trinity College and the Royal College of Surgeons usually shared the honours between them.
The first club captain/president was the author and screenwriter Brian Talbot Cleeve, in the season 1955/56. Records from this time are incomplete at best but it appears the club was forced into hiatus for a number of years until the season 1961/62 when Joe Long and then Michael Ryan began to revitalise the club. Michael Ryan's first task as captain was to claim the back-payments of funding to the club which hadn't been collected in a number of years and which when collected gave the club a healthy jump-start on the way to recovery. In an interview with the UCD Observer newspaper in November 2004 Michael recalled that "It was quickly clear that the club had not claimed its annual grant for either of the previous two years. The person who doled out these grants was the Deputy Bursar, Mr. Brian Farrell, of TV fame afterwards, so I went to see him, seeking payment for the previous two years plus the first moiety of the current year. At £40 per year this came to £100, a substantial sum at that time (multiply by about 25 for today's money).”[1]
In 1966, with Michael at its head, UCD became the National Team Epee champions, which entitled the team to compete in the European Cup in Heidenheim, Germany; an invitation tournament for all the champion epee teams in Europe. After Michael’s return from the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, the club presented him with gold cufflinks that he still keeps today as a reminder of the links between UCD and his training under Prof. Duffy that helped him reach the Olympics.
[edit] Intervarsity Success
UCD first secured the All-Ireland Intervarsity Championship (the Frank Russel trophy) came in 1966 under the captaincy of Alan Dukes, former Fine Gael leader and Irish finace minister.
UCD were not to see success in the tournament again until 1972. This run of championship victories, which broke the dominance of Trinity Fencing Club, in the championship continued until 1978. This run of seven consecutive victories has been the longest run of success for UCD so far.
The 1990's onwards have seen UCD rise to dominance in the Intervarsity competition. Since 1992 UCD has won the tournament 12 times. In February 2007 the club secured it's 20th intervarsity title and sixth consectutive title.
Currently, 8 different universities take part in the Irish Intervarsity Championships: University College Dublin, Dublin University, National University of Ireland Maynooth, University College Cork, Dublin City University, Royal College of Surgeons, Queens University Belfast and University of Ulster Coleraine.
[edit] Further Information
For more history of the club and current news and events please visit http://www.ucd.ie/fencing
