Donal Eugene Spring (born 23 August 1956) is an Irish solicitor and former

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

international. Born in

Tralee Tralee ( ; , ; formerly , meaning 'strand of the River Lee') is the county town of County Kerry in the south-west of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town is on the northern side of the neck of the Dingle Peninsula, and is the largest town in ...

, County Kerry, Spring is the youngest son of Labour Party politician

Dan Spring Dan Spring (22 July 1910 – 6 September 1988) was an Irish Labour Party politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Kerry North constituency from 1943 to 1981. He was a Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Local Government ...

, who was a footballer in his youth for

Kerry GAA The Kerry County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), or Kerry GAA, is one of the 32 County board (Gaelic games), county boards of the GAA in Ireland. It is responsible for Gaelic games in County Kerry, and for the Kerry county teams. ...

. One of his elder brothers,

Dick Spring Richard Martin Spring (born 29 August 1950) is an Irish former Labour Party (Ireland), Labour Party politician who served as Tánaiste from 1982 to 1987, 1992 to November 1994, and December 1994 to 1997, Leader of the Labour Party (Ireland), L ...

, was capped three times for Ireland as a fullback and became a long serving Labour Party leader. All three brothers attended

Cistercian College, Roscrea Cistercian College, Roscrea or Roscrea College is a private boarding school in Ireland. It is a Roman Catholic seven-day and five-day boarding school, boarding and day school for boys, founded in 1905. Its pupil population is primarily made up ...

. Spring, a forward, appeared 16 times for

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 was the number eight when in 1978 they became the first Irish team to defeat the All Blacks. As both a lock and number eight, he was capped seven times for

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

from 1979 to 1981, largely while with

Dublin University The University of Dublin (), corporately named as The Chancellor, Doctors and Masters of the University of Dublin, is a research university located in Dublin, Republic of Ireland. It is the degree-awarding body for Trinity College Dublin, whi ...

. He was a club captain of Lansdowne, where he played in three Leinster Senior Cup and four Leinster Senior League wins, across two stints. In between, he played club rugby in France for Bagnérais. Qualified as a solicitor since 1982, Spring is the Principal of Dublin firm Daniel Spring & Co. Solicitors. Spring is also a racehorse owner and breeder - in 2023 he won the

Flying Five Stakes The Flying Five Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Ireland open to thoroughbreds, aged three years or older. It is run at the Curragh over a distance of 5 furlongs (1,006 metres), and it is schedule ...

with his horse Moss Tucker, named after his Munster team-mates

Moss Keane Maurice Ignatius "Moss" Keane (27 July 1948 – 5 October 2010) was a Gaelic footballer and a rugby union footballer who played for Ireland and the British & Irish Lions. Life and career Born at Currow in County Kerry, Keane started out as a Ga ...

and Colm Tucker.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spring, Donal 1956 births Living people Irish rugby union players Ireland international rugby union players Rugby union locks Rugby union number eights Rugby union players from County Kerry Sportspeople from Tralee People educated at Cistercian College, Roscrea Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Dublin University Football Club players Lansdowne Football Club players Munster Rugby players Irish solicitors Irish racehorse owners and breeders Stade Bagnérais players Irish expatriate rugby union players in France

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