Academics
Parfrey graduated from University College Cork in 1975 with a first-class honours degree in Medicine. He was awarded an MB BCh in 1980.
After working in Cork, London and Montreal, Parfrey and his family eventually settled at Memorial University of Newfoundland. In 1984 he was appointed assistant professor of Medicine. He became chief of the Division of Nephrology in 1987, chief of the division of Clinical Epidemiology and professor of Medicine in 1993. His research interests include the genetic and clinical epidemiology of inherited diseases, patient-related problems in nephrology and healthcare delivery research. He has published over 200 original articles and contributed to many books.
Parfrey received the Canada Institute of Health Research Distinguished Scientist Award in 2000 and the Medal for Research Excellence from the Kidney Foundation of Canada in 2002. He was named an Officer to the Order of Canada in 2004. In October 2023 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador. [1]
Rugby Union
Parfrey started playing rugby at age 13 at the CBC in his native Cork. He played his club rugby for University College Cork R.F.C., London Irish, Montreal Irish and Swilers RFC. Between 1970-77 he played in all of Munster's games, including the game when Munster drew 3-3 with the New Zealand All-Blacks in 1973; he also won a cap for Ireland as a wing against them in 1974. [2] He was the coach who led London Irish to the club’s first ever Cup Final in 1980. [3] He left London Irish in 1982 and moved to Montreal, where he coached the Montreal Irish. [2] He then become coach of the Canadian National side and led them to the 1999 Rugby World Cup. [3] He also led Canada to victory in the Pacific Rim Rugby Championship in 1997 and 1998. [3] He later became the President of the Canadian RFU, and is still a Director. More recently he coached the Newfoundland Rock team and won the Rugby Canada Super League.
His honours are Munster Cup with UCC (1976), County Championship with Middlesex, and Canadian National Championships 2005, 2006, and 2008 with the Newfoundland Rock as coach.
In order to improve Canadian Rugby Parfrey trained an under 19 team in 1987 and toured London. The team won 5 out of 6 games including the London Irish under 19 team.
Musgrave Park, known as Virgin Media Park for sponsorship reasons, is a rugby football stadium in the city of Cork, Ireland. The ground is situated on Pearse Road in Ballyphehane. The ground is named after Jimmy Musgrave, a past-president of the Irish Rugby Football Union. Owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), it is primarily used by Dolphin RFC, Sundays Well RFC, and Munster Rugby.
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Sundays Well Rugby Football Club is an amateur rugby union team based in Cork City, Ireland. Originally founded in 1906 in the Sunday's Well area on the northside of Cork city, it has been based at Musgrave Park on the city's southside since the mid-20th century. The club's first team competes in the Munster Junior League following relegation from Division 2C of the Energia All Ireland League in 2023.
Walter Parfrey was an Irish hurler who played in numerous positions, including goalkeeper, with the Cork senior hurling team. He was an All-Ireland Championship winner in 1902.
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Canada 
Ireland 