All-Ireland bid to host 2023 Rugby World Cup
Symbolic proposal could see games played on both sides of a border once beset by sectarian violence
Ireland will bid to host the 2023 rugby World Cup, the Irish and Northern Irish governments said Friday, formally launching a politically symbolic proposal to win the right to hold the event on their own for the first time.
Seeking to replicate the successful hosting by similarly populated New Zealand in 2011, the bid would see games played on both sides of an Irish border once beset by sectarian violence.
Irish people love our sport. We want to share the Irish sporting experience with the world
Unlike soccer, the national team is an all-Ireland selection.
"Ireland will put together a winning bid that is impossible to resist," Prime Minister Enda Kenny told a news conference.
"Irish people love our sport. We want to share the Irish sporting experience with the world."
The hosting of games north of the border would mark the latest in a series of high-profile sporting events to visit Northern Ireland to help it move on from the violence that cost the lives of 3,600 people prior to a 1998 peace deal.
This year's Giro d'Italia race successfully began in Belfast, while it was also announced that golf's British Open was set to return to the province for the first time in more than 60 years as early as 2019.