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IRISH RUGBY STAR IS

NOW AN IRISH CITIZEN!

Bundee Aki is a powerful and impactful centre who is one of the world's best Rugby
players. A regular for Connacht and Ireland, he's a true star of rugby union and has the
world at his feet.
Aki was one of 3,600 people who became Irish citizens on 16 September 2023 in
ceremonies taking place at the Convention Centre in Dublin, Ireland.
The Ireland and Connacht centre, who lives in Co Galway, said it was “a privilege” to
become a citizen of Ireland.
“I’ve been here for a very long time ... I’ve embraced the people and the people have
embraced me and my family as well,” he said, adding: “We feel like we’re at home”.
Originally from the Auckland suburb of Otahuhu in New Zealand, Aki has lived in Ireland
for 10 years now. He has 57 caps, has scored 16 tries for Ireland, and was recently
named as the BDO Ireland Men’s XVs players’ player of the year 2024 by his peers.
“To be granted Irish citizenship is not something you take lightly,” Aki said.
“I have nothing to complain about here. I love the people, love the culture. There’s not a
Peter O'Mahony and Bundee Aki recently with bad word I could speak about Ireland.”
young fan Stevie on The Late Late Toy Show. Aki and the thousands of other new citizens were congratulated by Minister for Justice
(Photo Credit” Image: X/@RTELateLateShow)
Helen McEntee who attended the ceremonies.

MEMBER NEWS AND MILESTONES

Long time OMS Member Peter P Mahoney has published a memoir entitled I Was a Hero Once.

From the Author's Introduction to the book:
…I am a storyteller. From barstools to back porches, from kitchen tables to campfires, from podiums to park benches,
I have spun my yarns to audiences both big and small, both rapt and bored. I didn’t start out that way. I was just a
dreamer, quietly imagining myself as something special, as someone who would “make a difference” in the world.
But the fact is, I was just an ordinary person leading an ordinary life. Then, partly by design, partly by happenstance,
I was thrust into a series of adventures and circumstances beyond anything I had ever dreamed.
It all started when I ran away from home at eighteen and hitchhiked around the country. Then I joined the Army,
became an infantry lieutenant, and went to Vietnam. After Vietnam, I tried to become a hippie, got involved
with Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), and became a National Coordinator for the organization. I was
subsequently indicted for conspiracy to incite a riot at the Republican Convention in 1972—the so-called Gainesville
Eight case—and one of my best friends turned out to be an FBI informant who testified against me at the trial. In the
early eighties, I was involved with the New York Vietnam Veterans Memorial Commission, which built a memorial for
Vietnam veterans in New York City and published the book Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam. In the late
eighties, I was part of a delegation of Vietnam veterans who went to the Soviet Union to meet with Soviet veterans of
their Afghanistan War. I fell in love with a woman from Russia, married her, and spent nine years living there, during
which I fathered two children, then brought my family back to the U.S. and the suburban middle-class life I had left so
many years before. The adventures ultimately, inevitably perhaps, ended, and like Samwise Gamgee, I returned to an
ordinary life once they were over. The only thing I had left from that special time was the stories…

I Was a Hero Once ISBN-13:979-8891323773 is available online from Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The O Mahony Society does not receive any portion of any sale.

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