The Old Punch Bowl Competition

FINAL SCORE : IRELAND-26 AUSTRALIA-23

WINNING SQUARE - I 6 A 3

COMPETITION WINNER - AOIBHINN KENNY

Next Saturday, The Old Punch Bowl pub in Booterstown, County Dublin are putting on another coach service both to and from the Aviva Stadium for Ireland's final match in the Guinness Series against Michael Cheika's Wallabies.

To celebrate, they have kindly offered a prize of carvery lunch for two people to the winners of HarpinOnRugby's latest "unriggable raffle", to be run this week.

Allow them to introduce themselves...

This famous tavern, once the haunt of notorious highwaymen, was first licenced in 1779 when William Scully, the then landlord, served such patrons as the Fitzwilliams, Barons of Thorncsatle and Viscounts of Merrion. The landmark location has seen more than its share of history and tragedy in the 200 years since it first opened its doors.A tranquil November day in 1807 turned to catastrophe as The Prince of Wales’ transport ship was caught in a sudden northeasterly gale as it tried to leave Dublin Bay. In violent seas, it founered on the rocks just south of Booterstown. The Captain escaped with his family and crew, but all 120 soldiers aboard perished. Their bodies washed ashore on Booterstown Strand and their bodies were buried in a quiet graveyard a five minute walk from the pub.

A more modern tragedy unfolded in 1927 just yards west of The Punch Bowl, on Booterstown Avenue, when renowned nationalist Kevin Higgins was assassinated while on his way to Sunday Mass, in reprisal for his part in the Irish Civil War.The Pub’s location was immortalised in the iconic 19th century ballad, ‘The Rocky Road to Dublin’. whose name is reputed to derive from the very Rock Road on which the Punch Bowl stands. A century later the world-famous tenor Count John McCormack retired to just a few doors away from the Punch Bowl and is said to have savoured its convivial atmosphere in his final years.

Throughout it all, The Punch Bowl has endured and prospered, providing a haven for travellers from far and wide. Today, its acclaimed hospitality can be enjoyed thanks to the O’ Rorke family. For the past 20 years Joe, Catherine and their daughters have ensured that visitors from all over the world bask in a cheery authentic welcome and enjoy the finest of fare in warm, traditional surroundings.

The Old Punch Bowl website

Facebook page

On twitter @OldPunchBowl

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As always, to qualify for the competition you will have to stay tuned to the HarpinOnRugby Facebook page throughout the coming week and follow the instructions when the posts are published.  Below you will see a grid showing the days, times and number of qualifiers for each post.

Click here for a more detailed explanation of how the “unriggable raffle” works.

DAY	TIME	NO. OF QUALIFIERS
MONDAY	9PM	40
TUESDAY	9PM	30
WEDNESDAY	9PM	20
THURSDAY	9PM	10

The rugby match which will provide the winning square for this competition is Ireland's Guinness Series clash with Australia on Saturday, November 22, 2014.

The following extra rules are unfortunate but necessary.

competition is restricted to over-18s ONLY

the competition winner will only be contacted via the social media account they used to qualify

only one entry per separate Facebook account is allowed each day, but it’s ok to enter once on each of the four days

each window closes 3 hours after posting – if all of the spots are not all taken, the extra ones will be allocated in a manner to be determined by the competition organisers.

when you are asked to leave an “exact phrase” this means you can use the phrase with OR without the quotes; also, since speed is a factor in the competition we will make allowances for typos once it is clear a decent attempt has been made to repeat the phrase

for some windows “edited” Facebook comments will not be permitted as entries…this will be outlined as part of the post where it applies

for transparency purposes your qualifying comment must remain on the social media post until at least two hours of completion of the rugby match that is to determine the competition winner.

be aware that Facebook have been known to display comments in a random order on the web; as competition organisers we will do all we can to ensure the timeline is properly followed in each window.

entrants’ positions on the grid are set and not open for discussion, nor are any other final decisions made by the competition organisers.

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If you have any questions about the competition and/or its format or would like to sponsor one down the line, feel free to email we'd be happy to help.

BE SURE AND HAVE A GO AND BEST OF LUCK!!! JLP