THE involvement in the game begins from the time the infant can walk. It ends after a lifetime of total commitment, the torch passed on to the succeeding generations. It crosses the boundaries that can be created by creed and society.

The youngster gets the first feel of the ball, the magic of that moment never departs, the encouragement never ceases, the commitment is total.

That is rugby in Limerick, the game for all the people. That is rugby in Shannon, not just a way of life but an integral part of its very fabric.

When Shannon won the Insurance Corporation All Ireland League for a third successive time last Saturday, its was not just a triumph for a club, it was a celebration for a multitude in the "The Parish" and beyond. The fortunes of the clubs in Limerick are a personal matter for the people.

There is immense pride in achievement, but not a semblance of complacency. Rugby has been very good to the people of Limerick, but Limerick has been very good to rugby it is without doubt the true heartland of the game in this, land.

Through the years, there have been some outstanding achievements by clubs across the land. One thinks of Garryowen's great, eight successive wins in the Munster Senior Cup in the closing years of the last century; Cork Constitution's tremendous achievement in winning the Munster Senior League nine times in succession between 1964 and 1972; Old Belvedere's magnificent seven cup wins in succession in the 1940s; Lansdowne's five in a row between 1927 and 1931, when the club also won the Bateman Cup in 1929 and 1930; and, more recently, Duagannon's four successive cup wins in Ulster. But outstanding though those achievements were, Shannon's three consecutive All Ireland league titles must go down as the greatest achievement in the history of the game at club level, in this country. This is a competition that has an all Ireland dimension. In that three year span, the club played 32 matches and won 29. They took the title with a 100 per cent record in 1995, lost two matches last season and lost one of the 12 played this season. That is a truly remarkable level of consistency.

LAST season they became the only club to win the league and Munster Senior Cup in the same season, and they also won the Munster Junior Cup for good measure.

Over the last decade, Shannon have blazed a trail of triumph that is an immense tribute to their talent, their dedication and their unquenchable spirit.

They have won nine major trophies since 1986. They worn the Munster Cup three times in a row between 1986 and 1988, and lost to an injury time penalty in the final of 1989. They won the Munster Senior Cup in 1991 and again in 1992, they then won the AIL 1995, did the cup and league double last season and now are league champions for an unprecedented the successive year. They may yet add the Munster Senior Cup to the league title this season.

That unprecedented level of success is a tremendous tribute not alone to the players but to a great back up team. Ia so many ways, life in the Shannon club, mirrors rugby life in Limerick. It is democratic, it is about a wonderful sense of community, it is classless and it has about it a superb tradition.

I believe the real strength of Shannon lies not alone in an immense sense of pride in the club, but in the manner in which the loyalty to it is handed, down from generation to generation, a simple pleasure but an immense and all embracing loyalty. Nor is it about glorification in the past, but so much of the best still remains in attitude.

It was not until 1960 that Shannon first won the Munster Senior Cup, only a few years after earning senior status. Prior to that great day, the club had enjoyed considerable success at junior level, and how splendid it is to see so many of the men who helped fashion that success still at the heart of the club.

Syd Millar, last season's president of the IRFU, got it absolutely right when he said: "They are a great club and their sense of loyalty to the club and to the game is wonderful. They have their priorities right in Shannon, and down there the club and the game comes above money or any other consideration. What they have achieved, is magnificent."

That Shannon's period of maximum achievement has coincided with a very lean period for Ireland internationally is scarcely Shannon's fault. If Ireland played with half the spirit and dedication that Shannon have revealed, they would not have been overwhelmed by England and capitulated to Scotland. Ireland's problems have nothing to do with Shannon's dominance domestically.

Not one Shannon player was selected for Ireland last season the nearest Mick Galwey got last season was a substitute for an A match. This season Galwey played in one match, when he was called into the side the night before against Western Samoa. Anthony Foley played against Australia and Italy and came in as a replacement against England this season. Eddie Halvey has not played for Ireland since the World Cup.

Galwey is now 30 and has been deemed good enough to win 22 caps and was also deemed worthy of a Lions tour to New Zealand in 1993. He (has been in the Ireland teams that have scored their best wins in recent years, such as against England in 1993 and 1994.

SHANNON are the points scorers in the league with 324, nine behind Lansdowne. They (have in centre Alan McGrath one of the best attacking players in an area of the field where Ireland is not exactly endowed with immense talent. They have another fine prospect in flanker Alan Quinlan, and a current under 21 international in second row Rory Sherrif and, in former Ireland under 21 international wing Andrew Thompson, the highest points scorer in the first division.

Nothing emphasises the continuity in Shannon more than reference to their team that won the Munster Senior Cup for the first time 37 years ago. The current involvement of so many of that side is revealing. That team included Frankie Flynn, still at the very heart of affairs Bonny Keane, the current fixture secretary; his brother, Eamon, as well as his brother in law, Eamon Clancy.

It was captained by Michael Noel Ryan, another still deeply involved, and the current president, Donogh Flannery, was a member of the 1960 team. The brother of the senior vice president, Frank Gallagher, and the late Jim O'Donovan, father of the coach, Niall, were also on the side.

The honorary secretary is Gerry O'Loughlin, a fine player, and his wife, Brigid, is the current PRO. Her late father, Enda, was president of the club and of the Munster Branch. Brian O'Brien, the manager of the current team, was the club's first international, and he, too, would have been on the 1960 cup team team but for injury.

That is the continuity, tradition and family commitment that obtains in Shannon, that is what shapes the vibrant life of a truly great club. It is a commitment that comes from the heart, in total harmony with those who fashioned the club's tradition.