Jack Kyle - Season Ticket - Mar 24th - 22.50

dreamer_ire

The focus is on the legend Jack Kyle tonight on Season Ticket.

"You look on the past with gratitude, you look on the present with enthusiasm - and you should try to look on the future with confidence."

Words of wisdom from a man who has led a truly remarkable life.
Jack Kyle is one of the most interesting, engaging and modest people I have ever met. His ability to recount stories and anecdotes from over half a century ago is phenomenal.

For younger fans, Jack Kyle is probably best known as one of the Grand Slam heroes of 1948, a man who was embraced by Brian O'Driscoll on the Cardiff pitch when the team of 2009 achieved the same feat 61 years on.
It was an image which portrayed the passing of the baton, as two iconic figures of the sport shared a special moment.

2009 Grand Slam captain Brian O'Driscoll with Dr Jack Kyle



Voted Ireland's greatest ever player in a 2002 poll, Kyle was a fly-half of class and style which was recognised the world over. His performances as a Lion on the 1950 tour are still talked about in New Zealand and beyond.

Famously, one journalist wrote this about Kyle's dazzling skills -
They seek him here, they seek him there
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere
That paragon of pace and guile,
That damned elusive Jackie Kyle.

But Jack Kyle the rugby player is only half of the story. When his playing days ended, he travelled to Indonesia to work as a surgeon for two years, before responding to an advert in a medical journal for a similar position in Zambia.

Little did he know that for the next three decades, his home would be Chingola, a mining town in the north of the country in an area known as the copperbelt.

Ten years after retiring, and moving home to live in Bryansford, County Down, we travelled back to Zambia with Jack and his daughter Justine.
It is hard to describe the welcome Jack received. Everywhere we went in Chingola, people stopped him. Some were old, some were young, some were wealthy, some were from the townships.

All, though, treated Jack with reverence. They were completely in awe of the man who had treated almost everyone in the region.
As the only surgeon in Chingola and the next town, Jack had no specialists to refer patients to. If he did not perform the operation, regardless of the field, it simply did not happen.

His enthusiasm for medicine still shines through. When we returned to hospital where Jack had worked, he was constantly asking questions about the current staff, enquiring about facilities, treatments, and if patients still sought the local witch-doctor's opinion first.

Kyle's life outside sport has not been written about in the same kind of detail as his rugby exploits. It has been an untold story to far, but to him, it has been just as important.

Jack Kyle's life is an inspirational tale but, like many sporting greats, modesty is one of his best qualities. Away from filming, it was just wonderful to sit over a glass of wine with him and listen to his stories and experiences.

Ireland and Lions legend Willie John Mc Bride describes him perfectly: "We talk about gentleman, I could not sum that word up any better than saying - give me Jack Kyle."

I agree.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/8574761.stm

siltirocker

Great stuff, thanks.

Danakin

Anyone know a link for the whole program from Wednesday night? Can't believe I missed it and Iplayer doesn't work in Ireland!

dreamer_ire

Danakin wrote: »

Anyone know a link for the whole program from Wednesday night? Can't believe I missed it and Iplayer doesn't work in Ireland!

It's on BBC NI next Tuesday night at 23.20. Not on iplayer yet but might be afterwards. If it is and I can download it and burn it onto disk I'll let you know.