[Article] Fan says chair not President's seat

Just saw this in the Irish Times, and it had me laughing. Was unsure where to post it, but given the IRFU were discussed I thought it'd be best for the Rugby forum.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2007/0411/1176156868911.html

Plans by the Irish Rugby Football Union to sell off the President's seat at Lansdowne Road as part of an auction of memorabilia from the stadium have run into unexpected problems.

A rugby fan who contacted The Irish Times says he has the actual seat used by President Mary McAleese and that the one being sold by the IRFU is a fake.

Andrew Morgan said he plundered the chair from the West Stand of the stadium at the last match played there last December before renovation. For good measure, he added, his friend took four neighbouring seats from the presidential box.

"Not only do I have chair number one in my shed, but friends of mine have numbers two to six, all of which were the chairs directly on the half-way line.

"Our chairs are the nicest ones in the box, in the best positions, clearly presidential."

Mr Morgan said he had no qualms about removing the seat from the stadium. "It was the last night in a great old stadium. Even the security staff were there encouraging us to take it."

However, an IRFU spokesman said they were sure they had the right seat, described in the auction material as a "blue rexine upholstered padded flip seat chair".

"We definitely have it. There were two seats taken from the presidential box but not from the row in which she sits. If this man wants to bring his chair down to Lansdowne Road we'd be happy to verify it."

Kieron Gammell of auctioneers Bache Trehearne, which is organising the online auction of more than 400 pieces of Lansdowne Road memorabilia on behalf of the IRFU, said it was attempting to clarify the status of the chair in its possession.

"If it does turn out that this guy has the President's seat, we'll just have to reword the advertisement for our item and call it a 'VIP seat'," Mr Gammell said.

Mr Morgan, whose chair is green, said he originally planned to use the chair at home in Bray. Now, however, he may put it up for auction on eBay at the same time as the IRFU auction later this month.

"If there was enough - any - interest in this, I'd be more than willing to put the chair up for auction and give 100 per cent proceeds to charity."

Other items for sale in the Lansdowne Road auction, which runs from April 26th-30th, include signed jerseys, a cast-iron turnstile and original wooden scoreboards.

© 2007 The Irish Times

How the hell did they get them out of the stadium?!

Diamondmaker

Twas easy to gt the stuff out everyne was at it and no one seemed to mind.
I saw 1 guy who had a chisel and hammer and another group were hanging from the west stand removing the shamrock and IRFU logo from over head on the way into the players area.:D

I got a sore finger for trying to pull off a sign:mad:

amorgan

hi guys,
thanks for the posting of the article! i've got the seat in my car boot right now! we stayed back after 'the last stand' and spent a couple of hours in the presidential box having a few pints watching some kids play rugby (later discovering that gerry thornley's own was playing)! realised shortly that the seat bases would come off!

didn't have any problems walking out with them either. there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that this IS the president's seat and what they are selling isn't authentic. we actually took seats #1, 4, 5 and 6. 4/5/6 were the ones right on the half way line, including the president's seat.

i'll get a pic up here as soon as i can.

also have a couple of radio slots tomorrow morning with both gerry ryan and bbc radio ulster. planning a website to advertise the auction for charity too!

zAbbo

amorgan wrote:

hi guys,
thanks for the posting of the article! i've got the seat in my car boot right now! we stayed back after 'the last stand' and spent a couple of hours in the presidential box having a few pints watching some kids play rugby (later discovering that gerry thornley's own was playing)! realised shortly that the seat bases would come off!

didn't have any problems walking out with them either. there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that this IS the president's seat and what they are selling isn't authentic. we actually took seats #1, 4, 5 and 6. 4/5/6 were the ones right on the half way line, including the president's seat.

i'll get a pic up here as soon as i can.

also have a couple of radio slots tomorrow morning with both gerry ryan and bbc radio ulster. planning a website to advertise the auction for charity too!

good on ya, get those pics up asap, wud be nice to have the website as well. You can order one quickly enough too - something like - https://manage.hosting.digiweb.ie/order/domains/?domain=therealpresidentschair.com

Diamondmaker

amorgan wrote:

hi guys,
thanks for the posting of the article! i've got the seat in my car boot right now! we stayed back after 'the last stand' and spent a couple of hours in the presidential box having a few pints watching some kids play rugby (later discovering that gerry thornley's own was playing)! realised shortly that the seat bases would come off!

didn't have any problems walking out with them either. there's absolutely no doubt in my mind that this IS the president's seat and what they are selling isn't authentic. we actually took seats #1, 4, 5 and 6. 4/5/6 were the ones right on the half way line, including the president's seat.

i'll get a pic up here as soon as i can.

also have a couple of radio slots tomorrow morning with both gerry ryan and bbc radio ulster. planning a website to advertise the auction for charity too!

HA HA HA:D LEG - END !

amorgan

here ye go, the president's seat. this is a world premier photo too






www.thepresidentschair.com coming soon...

Sangre

did you give it a sniff?

amorgan

we actually spent a good hour making jokes about getting into the president's box!