The family of a former Irish rugby star whose international caps were stolen during a break-in almost forty years ago have appealed for their return.
Ken Goodall, who died in 2006, first played for Ireland against Australia in 1967 and won the last of his 19 international caps against Wales in 1970.
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His Irish international caps were the only items taken during the break-in at his family home in Londonderry in 1987.
«I would love the family to get these caps back… that would be the end of it as far as I am concerned,» Goodall’s brother Alan said.
Speaking to BBC Radio Foyle’s 20 Minutes with Mark Patterson programme, Alan said nothing else was taken when the home was targeted back in 1987.
«It was only the caps that went,» he said, adding Ken and his wife Wilma were not the type of people «who would have had expensive jewellery and stuff like that».
He has over the years started to think the caps were «stolen to order».
Alan said he knows it is a «tall order» to expect the caps to be returned after all this time [BBC]
Getting the caps back now, Alan said, is «a tall order» but he hoped whoever had them might return them.
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«If the person who done this is about… and maybe thinking: ‘Oh, them caps, they’re lying up in my loft.’
«I do not want to see you prosecuted.
«I’d say: ‘Thanks very much for doing that.'»
Derry, Ulster, Ireland and the Lions
Ken Goodall, a number eight from City of Derry RFC, rose quickly through the competitive ranks of rugby, making his Ireland debut at the age of 19.
Over the course of his rugby union career he played for Ulster, Newcastle University, Ireland and the Barbarians.
In 1968, at the age of 21, he played on the British Lion tour of South Africa.
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However, Goodall’s Lions career did not last long after he broke a bone in his hand during his first game against Eastern Transvaal and had to return home again.
After winning the last of his 19 caps in the victory over Wales, Goodall then joined rugby league side Workington.
After his time in sport came to an end, Goodall returned to teach in Derry, retiring as vice-principal of Faughan Valley High School.
The family’s appeal comes after they were reunited with Goodall’s cap won for representing the British Lion on that 1968 tour [BBC]
The family’s appeal for the return of the stolen Irish caps comes just months after they were reunited with Goodall’s cap won for representing the British Lion on that 1968 tour.
In 2017 the Lions Trust launched an initiative to reunite former players with their international caps.
The cap had been, unbeknown to the family, in an office in Dublin until July, when it was reunited with the Goodall family.
