In 1860 Thomas Ogden opened a small tobacco shop on Liverpool’s Park Lane. By 1890 he had six factories in the city and in the early 20th century, they had become substantial enough to produce a series of cigarette cards depicting sporting heroes of the time.
On one of those cards in 1902 was an image of a dashing fellow with a thick dark moustache named LM Magee, and on the left side of his shirt the four shamrocks of the Irish rugby team emblem were clearly visible.
In 2026 Magee might have been called a brand ambassador but Louis and his brother Joseph were one of the earliest sets of brothers to start together for an Irish rugby team.
Before them were the Ross brothers – Daniel, John and Joseph – and on Thursday against France at Stade de France, outhalf Sam and flanker Cian Prendergast will bookend a long tradition and become the latest brothers to start together in a Test match for Ireland.
The Rosses, Magees and other sets of brothers didn’t have the opportunity to play in tournaments as we now know them as the Five Nations arrived in 1940 and ended in 1999, with the Six Nations format beginning in 2000.
Although an endearing partnership, the Prendergasts are far from alone, with 57 pairs of brothers representing Ireland since the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) was established in 1879.
Since just before the tournament became the Six Nations, the Wallace brothers – Richard, Paul and David – spanned 20 years of rugby with Richard and Paul’s careers overlapping in the 1990s before Paul’s career then overlapped with David in 2000.
Winger Richard and prop Paul started in eight matches together, half in the Five Nations championship between 1995 and 1998, including a match against France in Stade de France in the 1998 season.
Richard, David and Paul Wallace. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho
David’s international career then kicked off and finished with his brother Paul in 2000. The pair started one Irish match together, against the USA in New Hampshire in June of that year.
The current Head of Operations with Leinster, Guy Easterby, a former Irish scrumhalf, and his brother Simon, a flanker who is now part of Andy Farrell’s coaching team this week, also played together in Ireland’s trouncing of the USA in 2000. The 83-3 scoreline was Ireland’s biggest win until last year’s 106-7 defeat of Portugal.
It marked the first of six matches the Easterbys started together for Ireland, which they duly celebrated by scoring two tries each.
The pair also played in a Six Nations match against Scotland in September 2001. Delayed that year due to foot-and-mouth disease, Scotland won 32-10, ruining Ireland’s chances of a potential Grand Slam.
Their run of starts for Ireland spanned from the summer of 2000 to the autumn of 2004.
There was more than a three-year age difference between the older Simon Best, a prop, and younger brother Rory, a hooker.
Rory went on to play 124 times for Ireland and captained the team in contrast to Simon, who was forced to retire at the beginning of 2008. Simon’s 2007 Rugby World Cup in France came to an end in Bordeaux when he experienced an irregular heart rhythm.
Frightening as it was, he suffered no long-term effects but after 23 Irish caps he was forced to stop playing rugby. But not before the brothers lined out to start against Scotland in Murrayfield in 2007.
Ireland’s Rob Kearney and Dave Kearney. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho
It would surely have been more than once had fate not intervened, but the Best brothers stand with the rest, including more recently Rob and Dave Kearney, and Niall and Rory Scannell.
Fullback Rob and winger Dave have started more games for Ireland than any other brothers. Beginning against New Zealand at Lansdowne Road in 2013, they started together 11 times, a run that given this week fittingly ended in Stade de France in 2016.
The 2016 game was their second together in Paris as they also lined out against France in March 2014 in a game that was the last Test for Brian O’Driscoll.
With Rob playing at 15 and Dave on the left wing, Ireland won in France for only the second time in 42 years to secure the championship over England on points difference.
The memorable year for the Scannell brothers was 2017. Rory, a place kicker and centre, and hooker Niall, played together in a previous match against the USA when Rory came on as a replacement.
But the pair started together when Ireland lined out against Japan in Shizuoka in June 2017.
Not unlike the Prendergasts, who played together when Cian came on after 47 minutes against Fiji in 2024, this week they start together in Paris for the first time.
An Irish tradition that never stops giving.