Former Ireland captain Terry Kingston leads tributes to his former Dolphin clubmate

Tributes have been paid to former Ireland and Munster prop Phil O’Callaghan, who has died in Dublin at the age of 83 after a short illness.

Former Ireland captain and fellow Dolphin player Terry Kingston led the tributes to O’Callaghan, who played for Dolphin for over 20 years in a career that saw him capped 21 times for Ireland and 34 times for Munster.

“Philo was an absolute legend here at Dolphin for both his personality and his rugby exploits with club, province and country. He was a huge influence on me in my early career as I joined Dolphin in 1982 after school and he was the Under-20 coach at the time.

“In many ways you could say he took me under his wing as he became my coach, my mentor and my friend. He taught me about tenacity, team work, continuous improvement and ambition, he coached me to senior level and his influence stayed with me throughout my career.”

O’Callaghan’s nephew, Mark O’Leary, told The Irish Times that his family were extremely proud of their uncle’s achievements with Dolphin, Munster and Ireland as well as playing with and against some of the greats of the game in the 1960s and 1970s.

“He played with some tremendous players when he was capped by the Barbarians – people like Barry John, Gareth Edwards, Phil Bennett, JPR Williams and Gerald Davies from Wales and David Duckham from England, whom he became great friends with,” said O’Leary.

“And he played with some of the greats of Irish rugby – Willie John McBride, Mick Doyle, Barry McGann, Mike Gibson, Syd Millar but he always maintained the three greatest players he had played with were Tony O’Reilly with Dolphin and Tom Kiernan and Noel Murphy with Ireland.”

O’Callaghan, who grew up in Ballyphehane and later moved to Lehanaghmore in Cork, lived in Ashtown in Dublin in recent years. He is survived by his wife Anne, his brother Paddy and sisters, Marie and Eileen. Funeral arrangements have yet to be announced.