What Made Me: Alan Quilan

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The Claire Byrne Show 3 speakers 5 chapters transcribed 2 months ago

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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

Claire Byrne 0:01

The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk with Aviva Insurance.

Clare Byrne 0:09

Now, my next guest is former Ireland and Munster rugby player Alan Quinlan, who's here for What Made Me. I'm not going to ask you about peeing in the sea. I promise you're not. We won't go there, Alan. You're very welcome to the programme.

How did Alan Quinlan's childhood in Tipperary shape his early love of sport?

Clare Byrne 0:21

You wanted to be a hurler, did you?

Alan Quinlan 0:23

Yeah, I did when you when I grew up in Tipperary. Yeah, it was it was all about the hurling when I was young. I played all sports, always played rugby and soccer and tennis and was always active in sports. So it was the hurling was one. Yeah. Nick English was was a neighbour very close. And he was obviously. I got everyone in Tipperary, one of the best hurlers to ever play and played a game in Ireland. And yeah, so that was kind of tradition. Hurling was strong and GA and stuff. And I loved it. I loved the guy growing up as well.

Clare Byrne 0:56

Did you have to make a choice then at some stage?

Alan Quinlan 0:58

Yeah, I think when I kind of signed my first contract around 2021.

Clare Byrne 1:03

Oh, that was quite late. So not when you were playing amateur, you were still able to do everything. Because it's hard to do everything, even when you're, you know, 10, 11, 12, coming up through.

Alan Quinlan 1:11

It is. My mum, I can't thank her enough. She was phenomenal. There was four of us and she was full-time working. She was a chef for the health board and it was called a welfare home at the time in Tipperary Town. So she would work and She'd be rushing home, making food, back into work, straight after work, no food herself, dropping us to matches. You know, particularly this time of year in the summer, we would have, you know, GA matches three or four evenings a week. And she constantly brought us everywhere and sacrificed so much of her time for us. Yeah, I was probably the lucky one that made it kind of at a high profile position in sports. But, you know, look, I still love sport. Even if I wasn't a professional rugby player, I would have always been participating in sports.

Alan Quinlan 2:00

People often ask me, what advice would you give to young people? Just try and be active, get involved in sport. It's great for friendships, you know, relationships, socialising with people.

Clare Byrne 2:12

Cool. I think it's great as well to have a network outside of school because school can be tough sometimes, right? Yeah. Whereas if you're involved in a sports club, there's a whole other group of friends that may or may not be in school with you. It's just a release valve.

Alan Quinlan 2:24

Definitely, yeah. I think I, you know, I played because the GA club, the rugby club, even going playing tennis in the summer, we would play a lot in the local tennis club and they're all different groups of people and you just make different connections and I enjoyed all that. So yeah, it is. Look, you don't necessarily have to be an aggressive participant in sport to enjoy it and to socialise and be part of something and You know, if you don't play, then you can go and watch a match and stuff. So it's still that has many benefits and great benefits for me in my life being active. And, you know, my brothers and sister did the same.

Clare Byrne 2:59

Well, it gave you your career. You know, even now it's still giving you your career. And just going back to making the choice, then I know that's a professional contract on the tables that makes it a lot easier, right, to make that call. But is there a little bit of mourning there sometimes that you're saying goodbye to the other sports that you loved, maybe in equal measure?

When did Alan start choosing between hurling, rugby and other sports?

Alan Quinlan 3:18

Yeah, I think, look, I would always have went to Croke Park and watched matches and, you know, went to All-Irelands when I was young. Even if Tipperary weren't there, the club would always have, Arville Rovers, the local club, would have had buses on. I was always keen to go there. I was intrigued by Croke Park and GA was very much part of my life. So, yeah. Yeah, I suppose when I had to make the decision, look, I had no clue, Clare, when I was young that rugby could give me a career because it wasn't professional. It only went professional in 95, 96 season. I was a mechanic when I left school for five years.