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.
Sir Charles Cavendish Boyle was a British civil servant, magistrate, and colonial administrator who served as Colonial Governor of Newfoundland, Mauritius and British Guiana. He wrote the lyrics for the anthem of the Dominion and later Province of Newfoundland, "Ode to Newfoundland".
Musgrave Park 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.
Rod Snow is a Canadian former professional rugby union prop.
Faculty of Medicine of Memorial University of Newfoundland is located on the eastern edge of North America and is one of two medical schools in Atlantic Canada. It was founded in 1967 and is the academic core of health research in the province.
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 Munster Branch. The club is one of the top amateur sides in Ireland has seen many of its players progress to professional and international rugby. The 1st XV plays in Division 1A of the All-Ireland League. While the women's side compete in Division 1 of the Munster League. Shannon RFC fields underage teams for boys and girls from u6s - u20s. Shannon RFC made history in 2017 as being the first club in the country to field a girls u20s side.
Young Munster is a rugby union club based in Limerick, Ireland, playing in Division 1A of the All-Ireland League. It was founded in 1895 and plays its games at Tom Clifford Park in Rosbrien, Limerick.
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Pat McDonnell is an Irish retired hurler who played as a full-back for the Cork senior team.
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Donal Gerard Lenihan is a retired Irish rugby union player. He appears regularly as a co-commentator on TV and radio for rugby matches and writes for the Irish Examiner. He also works as a financial consultant in Cork. Lenihan was inducted into the Munster Rugby Hall of Fame in April 2019. He was inducted into the Rugby Writers of Ireland Hall of Fame in November 2013. He was adjudged Irish rugby’s ‘Player of the Decade’ for the 1980s by the Irish Times. Lenihan was elected President of Cork Constitution Rugby Club in 2020-2021. His brother Cormac Linehan has been very successful as a manager for Kilmurry junior A team, being touted as the next potential Cork senior football manager.
Mike Ross is a retired Irish rugby union footballer who played prop for Irish club Leinster and the Ireland national rugby team.
Declan Kidney is an Irish rugby union coach. He was the head coach of the Ireland national rugby union team from 2008 to 2013, where he won the 2009 Six Nations with a Grand Slam, winning the 2009 IRB Coach of the Year award. He was also the head coach at Munster, leading them to four Heineken Cup finals, winning twice in 2006 and 2008. He was recently Director of Rugby at London Irish.
University College Cork Rugby Football Club is a Irisih rugby union club which currently plays in Division 1B of the All-Ireland League. Founded in 1872, they originally played as Queen’s College Cork, as UCC was then known. Recent successes include winning the All Ireland U-20 Championship in 2002. In the same year, they also reached the AIB League playoffs for the first time, narrowly missing out on promotion to Division 1. Leading players in that team included Denis Leamy, Stephen Keogh and Frank Murphy, all of whom went on to play for Munster.
James Coughlan is a retired Irish rugby union player and current coach. Coughlan played primarily as a number 8 and represented Cork-based amateur club Dolphin in the All-Ireland League, his native province Munster and French club Pau, and, internationally, Ireland Wolfhounds and the Ireland 7s team during his career.
Atlantic Rock, also known as The Rock, are a Canadian rugby union team based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. The team plays in the Canadian Rugby Championship (CRC) and is intended to draw most of its players from the rugby unions of Canada's five Eastern provinces: Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island (PEI) and Newfoundland & Labrador.
The Texas Vampires were a name given to a group of researchers from Baylor College of Medicine who in 1998 conducted a study on arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD) among the population of Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The study team was led by Dr. Robert Roberts (cardiologist), who was president and CEO of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute from 2004 to 2014.
Garrett Fitzgerald was an Irish rugby union player and coach, who was CEO of Munster Rugby between 1999 and 2019.
Bandon Rugby Football Club is an Irish rugby union club. They play in Division 1 of the Munster Junior League.
Anna Caplice is an Irish rugby player from Mallow, Co Cork. She plays in the back row for English club Harlequins, Munster Rugby and the Ireland women's national rugby union team. She is a qualified language teacher and rugby coach.
Canada 
Ireland 