The visit to Áras an Uachtarain (main picture) was one of the early stops on the Women's Rugby World Cup 2017 trophy tour that had departed from the World Rugby Hall of Fame in Rugby on 13 March.
The trophy had made an appearance four days later at Donnybrook for the Women's Six Nations Grand Slam decider between WRWC 2014 winners England and WRWC 2017 hosts Ireland, giving the crowd of more than 6,000 a chance to see the silverware up close.
On 18 March, the trophy was formally presented at the Aviva Stadium during the men's Six Nations match, accompanied by World Cup winner and Grand Slam-winning captain Sarah Hunter and Ireland captain Niamh Briggs, who is looking forward to the whole island getting involved in the tour.
The tour then began in earnest with trips to Cavan RFC, Clontibret National School in Co. Monaghan and Virginia RFC the following day with Ireland second-row Sophie Spence on hand to meet the girls.
A pleasure to be asked to visit @RFCVirginia for the start of the #WRWC2017 #trophytour great day #wrugby #bringit pic.twitter.com/RsMSq4C3dN
— sophie spence (@spence_87) 19 March 2017
Monday saw the trophy visiting Monaghan Collegiate School, Scoil Naomh Padraig in Emyvale and a civic reception in Monaghan RFC.
Briggs and Ireland legend Brian O’Driscoll were part of the welcoming party for the World Rugby technical review group on their RWC 2023 host candidate visit and both were on hand as President Michael D. Higgins welcomed the trophy on Tuesday.
Then it was a short trip up the M1 to Sport NI in Belfast as the tour, which will take in schools, clubs and events in every county on the island of Ireland in the coming months, continued.
Donegal was the next stop on Wednesday with visits to the Donegal Sports Partnership accompanied by Ireland star and Donegal native Nora Stapleton. The visit was one of the highlights of the Girls Get Active festival.
Girls @ErrigalCollege @FinnValleyColl & Irish Rugby players Nora Stapleton & Laura Feeley with Women's Rugby World Cup#BringIt #WRWC2017 pic.twitter.com/fT9RTDDCWP
— Donegal Sports Pship (@ActiveDonegal) 22 March 2017
Then it was on to St. Mary’s National School in Stranorlar at lunchtime and City of Derry RFC on Wednesday evening.
Enniskillen played host to the trophy on Thursday with stop offs at the Enniskillen Royal Grammar School and Enniskillen RFC.
The #WRWC2017 Trophy Tour continued this weekend with trips to Greystones & Belfast. Check out the next stop on https://t.co/qwSyxpZTdh pic.twitter.com/QxILendq3R
— World Rugby (@WorldRugby) 26 March 2017
#WRWC2017 Trophy Tour – Coming up
The trophy will visit Ireland’s oldest rugby club, Dublin University Football Club, next week as well as visits to Malone, Greystones and Maynooth.
For a full list of stops on the tour, visit www.rwcwomens.com/trophy-tour.