{"id":25779,"date":"2025-08-27T04:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T04:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/25779\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T04:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T04:54:10","slug":"limerick-rugby-star-receives-a-different-cap-as-he-graduates-from-ul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/25779\/","title":{"rendered":"Limerick rugby star receives a different cap as he graduates from UL"},"content":{"rendered":"

LIMERICK rugby star has passed his latest milestone revolving around a different kind of cap as he graduated from University of Limerick.<\/a><\/p>\n

Dave Kilcoyne, the Munster and Ireland rugby star was conferred with a Professional Diploma in Aviation Leasing and Finance from UL\u2019s Kemmy Business School, joining more than 3,670 students graduating as part of the University\u2019s autumn ceremonies.<\/p>\n

For Limerick man Dave, who recently called time on an illustrious 15-year career with club and country, this latest achievement marks another step towards the exciting next phase.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Limerick athletes impress for Ireland at World Transplant Games in Germany<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 36 now, so to have gotten that long in the sport, with the way it\u2019s gone, I\u2019m very grateful,\u201d said Dave, who is still recovering from what he describes as a \u201ccareer-ending\u201d Achilles tendon injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose were the best days of my life, but I\u2019m also content now to try something else and broaden my horizons.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the third time that Dave has donned the cap and gown at UL, having previously completed the Bachelor of Business Studies (2012) and, later, the MSc in Business Project Management (2019).\u00a0<\/p>\n

While his heart was always set on playing rugby at the highest level with Munster and Ireland, he credits his mother with instilling in him the importance of education.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just dead-set on playing for Munster and Ireland \u2013 that was my goal. I had no interest in college at the start, but my mother wouldn\u2019t let me do the [Munster] Academy unless I finished college. So, it was more about getting through it,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

By fourth year, Dave was a regular feature on the Munster lineup; but while the demands of his rugby career only increased, so had his appetite for education. Having completed his undergraduate degree, majoring in Accounting and Finance, and with his professional rugby career in full flight, it wasn\u2019t long before he was back on the Castletroy campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went on to play a good few years with Munster and Ireland, and you start to mature a bit and realise that there is a life after sport,\u201d he said of his decision to pursue the MSc in Business Project Management.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great course. I did one year full-time, and I did find it tough balancing it with the rugby; but I\u2019m delighted that I got it done. I found it really interesting, and it\u2019s something I might even look to go into now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The past few years have undoubtedly been some of the most successful and rewarding of Dave\u2019s career, featuring a Grand Slam title with Ireland along with URC victory with Munster; but with one eye on retirement, he was keen to explore his options.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou realise you\u2019re pushing on in years with the rugby, and I wanted to try setting myself up as best I can,\u201d Dave said of his decision to come back to UL, to study Aviation Leasing and Finance.<\/p>\n

\u201cSport doesn\u2019t last forever, so you\u2019ve got to be thinking of what you\u2019re going to be doing after. No one has it fully figured out, especially when you\u2019re that deep into the sport; but if you can take a bit of time and think of what your life would look like after, and guide yourself to something you think you might be interested in, you\u2019ll dedicate the time to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know a lot of people in the aviation leasing industry. D\u00f3mhnal Slattery (former CEO of aviation leasing company Avolon) came in and gave us a talk before the World Cup, and it sparked my interest in it. The fact that the course was fully online in UL, where I was training, just suited perfectly, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

For an elite athlete, juggling training and games with studies was always going to prove challenging, and Dave credits the support of his lecturers in UL along with those deeply ingrained qualities he honed on the pitch with powering him over the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cRugby teaches you a different skillset set in terms of discipline, motivation, resilience \u2013 God knows, there\u2019s enough setbacks; but it\u2019s about how you bounce back. My experience definitely afforded me the skills to get through the course,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never missed a day of training, or a match \u2013 that just wasn\u2019t feasible; rugby was my number one priority, and it has to be for all athletes at that level. But the University completely understood that and worked around me. If I couldn\u2019t make a workshop or an assignment, I could do it at a later date. I wouldn\u2019t have been able to complete all three courses without the lecturers being so accommodating of my timetable.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he looks to the future, Dave \u2013 also a proud Ardscoil R\u00eds alum \u2013 is looking forward to some well-earned downtime and taking stock before moving on to the next adventure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m taking a bit of time to figure out exactly what I\u2019m going to do. I have a few ideas \u2013 I\u2019m thinking that I might move away for a little bit. I\u2019ve been in Limerick all my life, and I love Limerick \u2013 it\u2019s been very good to me; I grew up in Ballinacurra, I live in Castletroy now. But I think change is always good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s nothing if not true to his alma mater\u2019s message to \u2018stay curious\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cAndy Farrell would often say \u2018you have to figure it out yourself\u2019. You can\u2019t be spoon-fed everything, and that curiosity piece \u2013 exploring different things \u2013 you have to find out what you like, where your interests are, what your motivation is, what sparks you to get out of bed in the morning. I think that\u2019s down to everyone, individually; to find out what gets them going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LIMERICK rugby star has passed his latest milestone revolving around a different kind of cap as he graduated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,1844,7587,15,16,5,7,8,21279],"class_list":{"0":"post-25779","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-limerick","19":"tag-limerick-city","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories","25":"tag-university-of-limerick"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}