Dublin’s Emerald Warriors champion rugby for all

Dublin's Emerald Warriors champion rugby for all

In training as in matches, the captain of the Emerald Warriors, Oran Sweeney, proudly wears his rainbow laces.

(Robin Dussenne)
News

The clatter of cleats on the concrete floor can be heard as they leave the locker room. One by one, the players come out onto the pitch and put their sports bags down behind the touch line. With a handshake, a hug, a ‘Russian kiss’ or a friendly tap on the backside, the group of friends welcome and encourage each other, happy to be back together like every Tuesday.

It is 7.30 pm at the Clontarf ground in north-east Dublin, and the afternoon’s downpour has given way to a beautiful rainbow. It’s training time for the Emerald Warriors.

The Emerald Warriors were created in 2003 with the aim of being an inclusive, gay-friendly rugby team. “It all began just over 15 years ago when Michael Richie Whyte, the club’s founder, watched the King’s Cross Steelers play on a trip to England. It was the first gay and LGBT rugby team in the world,” recalls Simon Finnegan, the Warriors deputy trainer and chairperson, who himself is a former player. “After seeing them Michael thought it would be a good idea to do the same thing here in Ireland,” he says.

At that time there were only a handful of tournaments in the world’s small gay rugby circle, mainly in the United Kingdom and the United States. The club’s founder decided to bring a few acquaintances together over a beer in an old pub in the city centre to discuss their possible participation in the next tournament, in London. “And that is how the team was born!”

Sixty gay, bi and heterosexual players

Today there are nearly 60 gay, bi and even heterosexual players who wear the green and blue jersey. They include newcomers to the oval ball who are looking for a comfortable place to be, whatever their sexual orientation. “I’d heard a lot about the Warriors and one of my friends played for them. I found myself knocking at an open door and since then they’ve had to put up with me,” jokes Conor Bulman, who joined the team last season. “To be able to join a group of friends based on sport without worrying about coming out is such a relief,” adds the 24-year-old. “In the team, no-one makes a big deal of it and there are no judgements, on or off the pitch”.

Since 2003 the club has become more structured and has been given the support of the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU). “In the early years, we were happy to play a few friendly matches with neighbouring teams,” says Finnegan. Then the amateur LGBT international competitions started: the Bingham Cup (the world cup organised by the International Gay Rugby Federation) and the Union Cup (its European equivalent), which the Dublin club has just hosted on the Trinity College pitch from 7- 9 June, right in the middle of Pride month.

Divided into two levels, the Emerald Warriors now play in the ninth and 11 division respectively of the Leinster Metro League, the provincial championship. Rugby is a popular sport in Ireland, with no less than 95,000 licensed players and 245 schools with a rugby team.

Its progress has enabled to club to build up a reputation, while the early homophobic prejudice has gradually faded away. “The teams who play against us have always been very respectful. It’s true we have heard people calling out “faggots” or “poofters” from the stands, but that is increasingly rare,” says Bulman.

Césaire Tchoudjuen has been a licensed player for five seasons and is a member of the first team. He has also seen a change. “We play against the same teams every year. Four years ago, some teams could beat us 120-0. This year we beat them by 60 or 30,” he says. “I realise it won’t change the world, but it does have a positive impact. It influences people who may not have any contact with the gay world. In the end, the opposing players realise that we are exactly the same as them and that there is no reason to be unpleasant or to close in on yourself.” And the 27-year-old flanker admits: “Let’s not hide it: the gay-friendly side has its advantages”.

A turning point for Irish society

In 2015, the Republic of Ireland voted in a referendum by a large majority in favour of same-sex marriage (62.07 per cent to 37.93 per cent). It was a real turning point for a society which remains rooted in the Catholic tradition.

At the training ground, standing back from his teammates, Oran Sweeny makes one conversion after another. Focusing hard, the man from Derry in Northern Ireland tries to get as many balls as possible between the posts. If you get closer, you can see that the captain has rainbow coloured laces in his shoes: a tribute to the Welsh player Gareth Thomas. The former captain of the Welsh rugby team, with 100 national caps to his name, was the first professional rugby player to come out while still playing. Last November he was the victim of a homophobic attack in Cardiff.

“Stonewall’s Rainbow Laces campaign began at the same time, and many international players wore the laces to show their support [for Gareth Thomas],” explains Sweeney. Fifty years ago, there was a heavy-handed police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York, which led to riots. The series of spontaneous demonstrations that followed is seen by many as the start of the politically activist LGBT movement in the United States and around the world.

“We decided as a club to adopt the rainbow laces. Everyone wore them, in the field and on the bench. It is a very simple thing, but if the whole team wears them, it voices a demand,” says the Warriors’ captain proudly.

Homosexuality remains a taboo in rugby circles. In September 2017, the Australian player Israel Folau tweeted that he respected “everyone for who they are and for their opinions,” but that he didn’t “personally” support gay marriage, before being excluded by the Australian Federation last April for publishing on his Instagram account the message: “Warning – drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists, idolaters, Hell awaits you. Repent! Only Jesus saves.”

Aside from Thomas, only England’s Keegan Hirst and Welsh international referee Nigel Owens have publicly announced their homosexuality. But there is no question of dramatising it. According to Gary Lynch, the important thing is to do away with the clichés: “It is true that we organise drag queen parties to raise money, but normal clubs do the same thing. They also do bingo nights with drag queens”. A rugby player since the age of seven, he says that “being gay is part of club life”. But the three-quarter back wants there to be no illusions. “We go out, we play rugby, we drink beer like other clubs. Nothing extravagant in fact. People always ask me ‘What are the crazy things you do?’ We do rugby stuff, not gay stuff.”

This article has been translated from French.