''Alone It Stands'' is a 1999 comic play by John Breen based on a famous 1978 rugby union match at

Thomond Park Thomond Park is a stadium in Limerick in the Irish province of Munster. The stadium is owned by the Munster Rugby and has Shannon RFC and UL Bohemian RFC as tenants. Limerick FC played home games in Thomond Park from 2013 to 2015 in the Le ...

Limerick Limerick ( ; ) is a city in western Ireland, in County Limerick. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. W ...

between Irish provincial side

Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

and the New Zealand national team, the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of New Zealand, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for th ...

. The title is a quotation from "There Is An Isle", the

Shannon RFC Shannon Rugby Football Club is the most successful club in the All Ireland League, having won the competition nine times. They hail from Limerick near the banks of the Shannon river. Shannon RFC is a member of the '' Irish Rugby Football Union ...

anthem, and it alludes to the fact that the match was the only defeat for the All Blacks during their 1978 tour of Britain and Ireland and their only loss to an Irish team until the national team won in Chicago in 2016. "In the play six actors play 62 roles including the Munster team, the Kiwis, the two coaches, the ref, the crowd, the press, a pregnant woman, several children and a dog." Alone It Stands makes no great claims for profundity (although it does add a somber note with the real-life death of the father( Dan Canniffe) of Munster captain Donal Canniffe during the match). Breen, a Limerickman, remembered the 1978 match as "such a huge event from my childhood" that he was disappointed when its 20th anniversary passed unmarked, and he spent a year researching for a play. A coproduction of two Irish theatre companies, Yew Tree of

Ballina, County Mayo Ballina ( ; ) is a town in north County Mayo, Ireland. It lies at the mouth of the River Moy near Killala Bay, in the Moy valley and civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish of Kilmoremoy, with the Ox Mountains to the east and the Nephin Beg Ra ...

and Island of Limerick, was ready for the match's 21st anniversary. After rehearsals and previews in

Kilmallock Kilmallock () is a town in south County Limerick, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, near the border with County Cork, 30 km south of Limerick city. There is a Dominican Priory in the town and King John's Castle (Kilmallock), King's Castle (or K ...

, it premiered at Waterpark RFC and toured around Ireland for 18 months, playing larger venues as

word-of-mouth Word of mouth is the passing of information from person to person using oral communication, which could be as simple as telling someone the time of day. Storytelling is a common form of word-of-mouth communication where one person tells others a ...

recommendations accrued, taking in the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

, and finishing in Dublin by moving from the Andrews Lane Theatre to the Gaiety Theatre. Breen won best director at the Irish Theatre Awards in February 2000. The play ran in the

Duchess Theatre The Duchess Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, London, located in Catherine Street near Aldwych. The theatre opened on 25 November 1929 and is one of the smallest West End theatres with a proscenium arch. It has 494 ...

in London's West End in 2002. It also toured New Zealand and Australia. Its New York premiere was at 59E59 Theaters in 2019. During New Zealand's 2008 rugby tour, they played Munster to mark the reopening of the redeveloped Thomond Park. Days before the match, which they narrowly won, the All Blacks attended a performance of ''Alone It Stands'' in Limerick. Since 2014 the play has been on the Irish

Department of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

's list of set texts for the

Junior Cycle The Junior Cycle () is the first stage of the education programme for post-primary education within the Republic of Ireland. It is overseen by the Department of Education (Ireland), Department of Education and the National Council for Curriculu ...

Student Award in English.

References

{{New Zealand national rugby union team 1999 plays Irish plays Munster Rugby New Zealand national rugby union team 1978 in New Zealand rugby union 1978–79 in Irish rugby union