A former pupil of the Royal School Armagh, former Ulster Coach Alan Solomons gave Tommy Bowe his first Ulster start at the tail end of the 2003-04 season when he scored a try against Connacht in a 42 – 27 win at Ravenhill.

He has since held down a regular place in the Ulster starting XV and won the Guinness Ulster Rugby Personality of the Year Award at the Ulster Rugby Awards Dinner in May 2005 and remains a firm crowd favourite at Ravenhill winning 17 Caps for Ulster during the 2006/07 season.

Tommy who first represented Ireland at U21 level made his senior Irish debut in November 2004 and scored a try on his debut appearance, Tommy was the first man from Monaghan to play for Ireland in 80 years.

Tommy missed the 2006/07 Autumn Internationals due to injury but trained with the team in November and later in the season trained with the Ireland Six Nations Squad. He was included in the squad to for the Argentina Tour in June playing one test and was unlucky not to feature in the final test due to injury. Tommy remains one of the fastest wingers in professional rugby.