Alan Quinlan was introduced to an Irish jersey early in his career, when he captained the Irish Youths (U/18) in 1993 whilst playing with his native club Clanwilliam. Since then he progressed through the ranks to eventually win 27 International caps before announcing his retirement from the world’s stage in 2011. After joining Shannon in 1994, he quickly established himself on the senior side, but his first experience in an A international would take almost four years to come to fruition. In 1997 he played against Canada at that level and continued playing with the side for the next couple of years. his withdrawal. His form going into the 1999 World cup warranted a place on the squad and his first full international was bestowed when he came on as a replacement against Romania. He remained in the A team at the start of the Six nations in 2000, but his consistent performances could no longer be ignored and he was rewarded with a starting place against Italy in 2001. That was a historic day for the Club, when the Irish team was made up of no less than Five Shannon players. His international career was something of a stop start nature, but as he entered it’s twilight he was playing some of the best rugby of his career and, in 2009 was rewarded with a place on the Lions tour to South Africa. It was however to be the best of times and worst of times and a citing panel deemed an innocuous incident when playing with Munster against Leinster warranted a 12 week ban which meant he would miss the tour.
http://www.espnscrum.com/ireland/rugby/player/13264.html