Son of Munster Rugby legend calls for Stand Up and Fight revamp

RONAN O'Brien, son of Ireland and Munster Rugby legend Brian O'Brien has recorded a version of the famous Stand Up and Fight with the hope that it will replace the current version of the song sang before Munster Rugby matches at Thomond Park. 

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O'Brien explains how the song, which is a song title from the American musical Carmen Jones, which is an adaptation of the Toreador Song from Bizet's opera Carmen, came to prominence in Munster Rugby.

"The song's first real entry was when Munster beat Ulster in the 1999/2000 season in Ulster when Ulster were the European Champions in 1999.

"The song was sang by my father in the Europa Hotel, Belfast. It started to catch the imagination from there and the possibility of what might this season be like if we come together and make something of this team. The team was very largely Limerick orientated with a lot of influence from Shannon, Garryowen, Young Munsters and so on. 

"What the song meant was a rallying cry or a call to arms for the team and it's based on the boxer theme of Carmen Jones, which is the all black cast musical version of Carmen the Opera so although they're very similar, they're also very different because one is opera-based and the opera-based and is still being sung in the stadium right now," O'Brien said.

O'Brien, who is a respiratory and breathing therapist describes how the idea to record his own version of the song came about.

"My point and my father's point was that no one really sings opera. Opera is a professional voice so when you're asking for a song to become an anthem, it doesn't land in opera. The way my Dad sang it was not in this opera space, it was at a tone you could understand and sing along with.

"Dad passed away three years ago this February. I sang the song at his funeral and there was a bit of chit-chat surrounding that with people saying that this should be the song.

"I finally got around to doing it and doing it in a way that I feel I can stand behind, bringing it back in a way that I hope will be an anthem feel and a call to arms feel. For the fans, for Thomond park and obviously for the players.

"I've recorded it with Bodhrán and different musical tastes. It's not a million miles away from what the original is but it's also very Munster-ised, with different wording that brings in the Munster context and my hope is that the song becomes a recognition for what Munster Rugby stood for.

"That is getting up for each other, for your manager, for your city and how we can bring back a community atmosphere in Thomond Park," he said. 

O'Brien says that rugby was a constant in his household growing up. His father Brian played as a centre with Shannon RFC. He was part of the club's first ever Munster Senior Cup success in 1960. O'Brien later became Shannon's first ever international when he was part of the Ireland squad for the 1968 Five Nations.

O'Brien spent nearly 15 years playing at senior level with Shannon, before going on to coach them to consecutive Munster Senior Cup titles in 1977 and 1978. He later served as a selector for Ireland and the British and Irish Lions during the latter's 1983 tour to New Zealand.

O'Brien's other coaching roles included periods as manager of the Irish U21 team and the Shannon team that won four successive All-Ireland League titles. He also notably served as team manager of the Ireland and Munster Rugby teams.

"I come from a very rugby orientated family, it was all Shannon Rugby growing up. Dad had been involved in the international set-up at an U21 level and then with Shannon and Munster.

"After that season he went on to manage the Irish team for the next seven years and Dad's passion was the club, it was Shannon. It was the clubs that were the prosperity for Munster, they are the grassroots for how Munster evolved. Dublin clubs didn't like coming down here but that's not the case anymore.

"I'd love to see an emphasise put back on Limerick rugby, Cork rugby, Tipperary rugby, Kerry rugby and how it can become a community cornerstone again. A lot of young players might think 'what's the point?' if they haven't made a Munster set-up by the time they're 20. There's so much more to rugby and what it offers in a community space and again in that mental health space, it's not be overlooked.

"We can do something towards creating the environment of communities within rugby, within this sport again and if that happens from these conversations, my father would be delighted, as would my family and I, as would everyone I think.

"That's what Limerick rugby was and that's what the backbone of Munster Rugby was before the professionalism and I know it was always going to lose some bit of that but we can also regain the part of it that is the DNA of it. I would've been at those big games when I was younger.

"Games against Saracens and Bordeaux where Munster should never have won and they did. The possibility of Munster coming into being contenders again is there we just need to tap into it.

"My hope is that this song becomes a cry from the fans to say 'this is what we want.'

The link to download Ronan's Stand Up and Fight is attached here https://payhip.com/b/QcIFC and proceeds from the song will be shared with Limerick Dementia Social Club.