Katie Fitzhenry (born 23 April 1989) is a women's rugby union player from Coolcotts in

Wexford Wexford () is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 N ...

County Wexford County Wexford ( ga, Contae Loch Garman) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was based on the historic Gaelic territory of Hy Kinsella (''Uí Ceinns ...

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

. She plays as a

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

for Blackrock College RFC,

Leinster Rugby Leinster Rugby ( ga, Rugbaí Laighean) is one of the four professional provincial rugby union teams from the island of Ireland and the most successful Irish team domestically. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby ...

, the

Ireland women's national rugby union team The Ireland women's national rugby union team represents Ireland in international women's rugby union competitions such as the Women's Six Nations Championship and the Women's Rugby World Cup. They have also represented Ireland in the FIRA Wom ...

and the

Ireland women's national rugby sevens team The Ireland women's national rugby sevens team participates in international competitions such as the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series, the Rugby World Cup Sevens, the Rugby Europe Women's Sevens and Rugby sevens at the Summer Olympics. Unlike ...

Career

Fitzhenry started playing rugby after experiencing tag rugby at

Loreto Secondary School Loreto is Italian for laurel-wood. A town in Italy named Loreto holds an important Christian shrine, which lead to the spread of the name to many other countries. It may refer to: Places Argentina *Loreto, Santiago del Estero, Argentina * Loreto ...

when she was 16. She had previously played

camogie Camogie ( ; ga, camógaíocht ) is an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women. Camogie is played by 100,000 women in Ireland and worldwide, largely among Irish communities. A variant of the game of hurling (which is played by men onl ...

and

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

for

Wexford GAA The Wexford County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) ( ga, Cumann Luthchleas Gael Coiste Chontae Loch Garman) or Wexford GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic games in County Wexf ...

. After leaving school, she was one of the founding members of

Wexford Wanderers RFC Wexford Wanderers RFC is an Irish rugby team based in Wexford, County Wexford, playing in Division 2A of the Leinster League. The club colours are blue, white and black. In addition to the First XV and Second XV there are also youth sides from U ...

's women's team. She made her provincial debut for Leinster against Ulster in 2010 following a successful trial. She played for Wexford Wanderers from 2006-20011 and moved to Dublin club Blackrock College in 2011 to play at a higher level. Following this, she was signed by 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 ...

as a centrally contracted rugby sevens player and was one of the first players to sign up to the Irish Institute of Sport's career development course at

Griffith College Griffith College ( ga, Coláiste Uí Ghríofa) is one of the two largest, and one of the longest-established private, third level (higher education) colleges in Ireland. Overview Established in 1974, with four campuses in Dublin, Cork and ...

. While balancing training for both the rugby union and rugby sevens teams, she worked part-time in a number of juice bars. In 2015, she made her debut for the Ireland women's national rugby union team in the

Women's Six Nations Championship The Women's Six Nations Championship, known as the TikTok Women's Six Nations for sponsorship purposes, is an international rugby union competition contested between six European women's national teams. It started in the 1995–96 season as the ...

against Italy. A week later she made her first start for Ireland, playing as a

against France. In 2017, Fitzhenry was selected as part of Ireland's

2017 Women's Rugby World Cup The 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup was the eighth edition of the Women's Rugby World Cup and was held in Ireland in August 2017. New Zealand became the 2017 champions by beating England 41–32 in the final on 26 August. Matches were held in Dubl ...

squad. She played in the tournament and she scored a try in Ireland's seventh place playoff against Wales at

Ravenhill Stadium Ravenhill Stadium (known as the Kingspan Stadium for sponsorship reasons) is a rugby stadium located in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the home of Ulster Rugby. With the opening of a new stand for the 2014 Heineken Cup quarter-final against ...

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. Fitzhenry missed a lot of the 2018-2019 season due to a cruciate ligament knee injury. She returned to the Ireland women's national rugby sevens in October 2019. In 2020 and 2021 she was selected on Ireland's Six Nations squads. She made 14 appearances for Ireland's XV and announced her retirement from international rugby in May 2021. Fitzhenry played

for Wexford underage and later played

ladies gaelic football Ladies' Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach na mBan) is a women's team sport. It is the women's equivalent of Gaelic football. Ladies' football is organised by the Ladies' Gaelic Football Association. Two teams of 15 players kick or hand-pass a ...

with Thomas Davis in Dublin, won an All-Ireland Junior Ladies Football title with Wexford in 2014. She studied Sport and Recreation Management in Waterford IT (2008-2011) and now works for

Irish Rugby Rugby union in Ireland ( ga, Aontas Rugbaí) is a very popular team sport. Rugby union is organised on an all-Ireland basis with one Ireland national rugby union team, national team, Irish Rugby Football Union, governing body and All-Ireland L ...

in its anti-doping programme.

References

Living people 1989 births People from Wexford, County Wexford Irish female rugby union players Rugby union hookers Ireland international women's rugby sevens players Ireland women's international rugby union players Leinster Rugby women's players Blackrock College RFC players Wexford camogie players Wexford ladies' Gaelic footballers Rugby union players from County Wexford Ladies' Gaelic footballers who switched code {{Wexford-camogie-bio-stub