John Alexander "Ian" McIlrath (born 10 March 1946) is a former Ireland

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

international from Northern Ireland. Educated at

Ballymena Academy Ballymena Academy is a mixed gender grammar school in the market town of Ballymena in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1828 as a small provincial school for children in the town and surrounding agricultural hinterland. Admissi ...

, McIlrath was a

Ballymena RFC Ballymena Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club based in the town of Ballymena, Northern Ireland, playing in Division 2A of the All-Ireland League. It is affiliated to the Ulster branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union. The club fields fiv ...

centre who gained five caps for

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, making his debut against touring Australia at Lansdowne Road in 1976. He featured on the 1976 tour of New Zealand and made his final international appearance in the

1977 Five Nations Championship The 1977 Five Nations Championship was the forty-eighth series of the rugby union Five Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the eighty-third series of the northern hemisphere rugb ...

. McIlrath was a primary school principal by profession, until his retirement in 2006. He began serving on the

Irish Rugby Football Union The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) ( ga, Cumann Rugbaí na hÉireann) is the body managing rugby union in the island of Ireland (both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland). The IRFU has its head office at 10/12 Lansdowne Road and home ...

committee in 2008 and was appointed president in 2018, replacing

Philip Orr Philip Andrew Orr (born 14 December 1950) is a former Irish international and British and Irish Lions Rugby Union loosehead prop. Orr was born in Dublin. Educated at The High School, Dublin and Trinity College Dublin, he played for Old Wesley ...

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:McIlrath, Ian 1946 births Living people Rugby union players from Ballymena Ireland international rugby union players Irish rugby union administrators Rugby union centres Ballymena R.F.C. players People educated at Ballymena Academy

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