Declan Ruth (born 30 April 1976) is an Irish hurling manager and former player. He is the current manager of his hometown club

Rapparees Rapparees or raparees (from the Irish ''ropairí'', plural of ''ropaire'', whose primary meaning is "thruster, stabber," and by extension a wielder of the half-pike or pike), were Irish guerrilla fighters who operated on the Jacobite side dur ...

, having enjoyed a lengthy career with them as a player, while he also lined out with the

Wexford senior hurling team The Wexford county hurling team represents Wexford in hurling and is governed by Wexford GAA, the county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The team competes in the three major annual inter-county competitions; the All-Ireland Senior Hurl ...

. Ruth usually lined out as a defender.

Playing career

Ruth first came to prominence at juvenile and underage levels as a dual player with the Shamrocks GAA club, before transferring to the Rapparees GAA club. He eventually progressed onto the club's top adult teams and won two County Championship titles as a

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

er. Ruth first appeared on the inter-county scene as a member of the Wexford minor team before later winning consecutive Leinster Under-21 Championship titles. He made his first appearance for the

in an

Oireachtas Cup The Oireachtas Cup was an annual hurling competition organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association between 1939 and 1999 for the top inter-county teams in Ireland. The series of games were usually played in the autumn months after the completion ...

game against

Clare Clare may refer to: Places Antarctica * Clare Range, a mountain range in Victoria Land Australia * Clare, South Australia, a town in the Clare Valley * Clare Valley, South Australia Canada * Clare (electoral district), an electoral district * Cl ...

in November 1995. Ruth was a non-playing substitute on the Wexford team that beat Limerick in the 1996 All-Ireland final. He had earlier won a Leinster Championship medal as a non-playing substitute and, after being dropped from the team for a period, returned to win a second provincial title in 2004.

Managerial career

Ruth has been involved in coaching and team management at all levels with the

club. In 2021 he managed the club's senior team to a first County Championship title in 43 years.

Personal life

Ruth was educated at Enniscorthy CBS before later completing a Bachelor's degree in Business Studies and Accountancy at the Waterford Institute of Technology. He later worked as a sales rep for a number of medical companies and also spent some time as an analyst on

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

's '' the Sunday Game''. In 2009, Ruth married Wexford

camogie Camogie ( ; ga, camógaíocht ) is an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women. Camogie is played by 100,000 women in Ireland and worldwide, largely among Irish communities. A variant of the game of hurling (which is played by men onl ...

player Aoife O'Connor.

Honours

Player

;Starlights * Wexford Senior Football Championship: 2002, 2004 ;Wexford *

All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship The GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship, known simply as the All-Ireland Championship, is an annual inter-county hurling competition organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). It is the highest inter-county hurling competition i ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

* Leinster Senior Hurling Championship:

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

* Leinster Under-21 Hurling Championship:

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

Manager

;Rapparees * Wexford Senior Hurling Championship:

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruth, Declan 1976 births Living people Rapparees hurlers Wexford inter-county hurlers Wexford inter-county Gaelic footballers Leinster inter-provincial hurlers Hurling managers