Meet Ruairi – the DS Eagle starring in our Glad All Over music video
If you’ve seen our Glad All Over charity single music video, you might recognise Ruairi. The 17-year-old DS Eagle features on the track and plays a leading role in the video, handing the song to Dean Henderson in the dressing room before kick-off. But that’s just the start.
Season ticket holder Ruairi is a lifelong Palace fan from South Croydon and has been involved with us for over a decade. He first joined our Down’s Syndrome weekly football sessions aged 7 after struggling to find places to play football with others like him. Since then, he’s barely missed a session and become not only a key player but a role mode to others too.
Ruairi’s Mum, Valerie, spoke to us about the impact the DS Eagles sessions have had on him:
“Ruairi looks forward to his weekly sessions and thoroughly enjoys meeting with his teammates to play football. He’s become much more social, confident and independent… Most importantly, his self-esteem has grown, and he’s learned how to be part of a team, something that’s helped him at school and beyond.”
Fast forward to the last few years, and Ruairi’s made some unforgettable memories. In 2022, he trained with the Palace first team after being invited by then-manager Patrick Vieira. He was also part of a group who surprised Marc Guéhi and Ebere Eze at a Palace retail shoot last Christmas.
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However, Ruairi’s life hasn’t always been straightforward. Ruairi attended mainstream school up until 2022, but his family struggled to get the correct educational provisions in place for him. Because of this, he has been home-educated for the past three years, but is thankfully thriving.
Ruairi was one of many young people supported by our Community Support Fund, which we launched in 2021 to help those showing great progress at home, school or in their community. The fund provides monthly grants to Palace for Life participants to help cover things like training, equipment, or resources that build resilience and boost employability.
With support from the fund, Ruairi received a laptop and has since successfully continued his education and secured a place at Orpheus College, where he will have the opportunity to pursue his love of performing arts – particularly drama, dance and most of all music – he’s currently working towards the ABRSM Grade 2 piano exam which he will be sitting in July.
Ruairi stood out during the DS GAME ON programme too (the programme that was the vehicle for Glad All Over) where his maturity, effort and kindness really came through. His mum puts it best:
“Ruairi has been a participant of DS GAME ON since early 2024. He’s tried his hand at working at a Food Bank, doing T-Shirt Design, a mocktail making experience, Café open Day, Paddle Tennis and many more. Ruairi has really enjoyed these sessions where he has had the opportunity to develop his confidence, learn new work skills and make new friends. He has especially enjoyed participating in the making of the “Glad All Over” song and podcast.”
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Ben, his coach for the last five years, added:
“He’s really matured into a polite, thoughtful young man who’s always keen to help other people. During sessions, if someone’s struggling, Ruairi’s always the first to step in and support them, especially on the DS GAME ON programme. You can tell he genuinely enjoys helping people”.
When it came to recording Glad All Over. Ruairi was a little shy at first, until Ben suggested he imagine himself at Selhurst Park singing Glad All Over on matchday.
DS Eagles release a cover of ‘Glad All Over’ at an event at Selhurst Park, London on 15 April 2025 (Photo: Micah Crook/KontentHaus)
As a season ticket holder, he knows every word so he let his vocals fly and we can make a bet he’ll be singing it at the FA Cup Semi Final in a weeks’ time.
What’s next for Ruairi? His mum explains:
“We are very proud of Ruairi and our hopes are for him to lead a happy, healthy, and independent life and to gain employment. We are looking forward to the next chapter of his life and where it will take him.
We are also very grateful to Palace for Life for enabling Ruairi to access opportunities which would not otherwise be available for our children. It is a notable charity and has helped to change the lives of many children throughout south London.”
When speaking to interviewees for this piece, we were told Ruairi always flicks through the Palace programme to see if he’s made it in, and at the Bournemouth game on Saturday, he wont be disappointed.
Ruairi features in the music video of the DS Eagles cover of Glad All Over, which aims to highlight that the barriers to employment are already high, especially for those with disabilities like Down’s Syndrome.
We’re asking Palace fans to get behind the campaign and show their support with donations that will help open doors for people with Down’s Syndrome and others facing barriers to employment.