Died 27 August 2026

It is with the deepest sadness that I must inform the membership of the death of Frank Forrest, who died peacefully on Thursday 27 August 2026, surrounded by his heartbroken family.

Frank was one of the finest members this club has known. Over more than half a century he gave Lansdowne his time, judgement, professional skill and friendship, and he asked for nothing in return. He served as a player, as first team coach, as first team manager and, in due course, as President. He was, as Mick Kearney wrote this week, a wonderful, considerate and passionate President who always put the club first.

He was a Corkman to the last. He learned his rugby with his beloved Dolphin,  went on to play for Munster, and when he came north to Dublin and to Lansdowne he brought Cork with him and never let it go. Henry Blake remembers first time playing against Frank in the early sixties, when Frank wore the Dolphin jersey, and then playing alongside him in the years that followed. Paddy Boylan put it well: Frank was liked universally in both Leinster and Munster rugby circles, which is no small achievement. Johnny Lombard put it better still: that a South Dublin youngster could cross paths with a Munster legend and become his lifelong friend is the very essence of Lansdowne!

Much of Frank’s greatest work for the club was done quietly, away from the pitch and without any wish for credit. He had a rare capacity to address and resolve property matters, and he turned that skill to Lansdowne’s benefit again and again. The delivery of Ballycorus, to ourselves and Old Wesley, owes more to Frank than to anyone; so too the upgraded pavilion at Lansdowne Road. These are things the club should never forget!

Away from all of that, he was simply wonderful company. He had an encyclopaedic view of rugby and a deep love of both GAA codes and of golf, and he could talk about all of them for hours. His friends have spoken to me about how he was the heartbeat of their annual trip to Lahinch, and of many great days in Cork and Killarney, at Munster finals and wherever else they gathered. He had warmth, devilment and craic in equal measure. Many of us remember him putting an arm around our shoulders when we first arrived at the club — and, as Diarmaid Murphy  wrote this week, keeping it there. You never forget kindness like that! 

Family, though, always came first with Frank, followed closely by Lansdowne and the multitude of friends he made here. Those two loves were never really separate. A club is only ever held in trust for the generations that follow, and Frank handed Lansdowne on in far better condition than he found it. His son Mark is our Vice President, and his grandsons play in the Minis in a club he did so much to help shape. There is no finer measure of a life given to a place than that!

Lansdowne Football Club extends its deepest sympathies to his wife Daphne; to his children Jane, Mark and David; to his daughters-in-law Annie and Gráinne; to his brother Seán and his sister Rosemary; to his grandchildren Ben, Johnny, Will, Tom and Alex; and to his brother-in-law, nephews, niece, extended family, friends and colleagues. We share their sorrow, and we are grateful beyond measure for the man they shared with us.

We shall not see his like again. 

Rest in peace, Frankie.

Graham Quinn

President 2026 / 2027

Lansdowne Football Club

Reposing on Saturday afternoon, 29th August, in Fanagans Carnegies Funeral Home, Monkstown, from 3.00 pm to 5.00 pm.

Removal on Monday morning, 31st August, to the Sacred Heart Church, Donnybrook, for Funeral Mass at 11.00 am, followed by cremation at the Victorian Chapel, Mount Jerome.

Members are warmly encouraged to attend and to stand with Daphne, Mark and all the Forrest family.