Bernard Flynn got punched, broke bones, lost teeth, then Sean Boylan blew the whistle and Meath training was over. The punishment from plucky opposition corner backs was another thing but nothing prepared Flynn, Meath’s livewire forward, for the biggest blow of his life in September 2010, when the bank called in their loans and his […]

5 years ago

“I’m sure you’ve made a bollocks of your job every now and again!” If that was Richie Sadlier the pundit talking, he’s used his experience to good effect there. It’s hard to believe it, but it’s over ten years since an ex-Milwall and former Republic of Ireland international sat down for the first time in […]

5 years ago

There’s a glint in Thomas Barr’s eye. There’s an excitement in his voice. You can’t escape the buzz off him, the sort of buzz you’d get from a fella who’s wandering around an airport departure zone,  mind racing and life before him. It’s not holidays this man is dreaming of. While fast-times and personal bests […]

5 years ago

5.00 of a Saturday morning and in her home in West Clare, Kay Considine would already be up and at it. Why wouldn’t she be? For the past three years, her daughter Ailish has been a key member of the Adelaide Crows side who have steadily asserted themselves as the most dominant team in the […]

5 years ago

As if Roy Keane needed a hand, Jamie Redknapp is now digging his own holes. Like an excitable teenager who’s had a bit too much to drink, the Englishman was doing too much swinging and not enough hitting on Gillette Soccer Sunday, as he and Roy Keane got into another one-sided barney about Spurs. While […]

5 years ago

Irish racing was, not too long ago, dominated by Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott to the extent that it was deemed a two-horse-race. The rich owners came to them and the small yards, well, aside from the odd handicap or an aberration, they were in for a baron few years in the land of the […]

5 years ago

To make a dream season even better, Henry De Bromhead and Rachael Blackmore have teamed up to win the Aintree Grand National with Minella Times. In Cheltenham, the pair were unstoppable and in Aintree, they’ve won the biggest jumps race of all. Everything they touch, these days, ends up in the winners enclosure and this […]

5 years ago

A winning manager walks into a losing dressing room. Long faces stare the walls down, deflated bodies slump in their seats and that sound of silence you can hear is the only sound they want to hear. A knock on the door and heaven is being targeted by a squad of rolling eyes. It couldn’t […]

5 years ago

It’s a holy week.

5 years ago

The US Masters begins on Thursday but the festivities have been going on since Monday. Practice rounds and par three tournaments, generally, ensure that Augusta National is a hive of activity for this holiest of April weeks. Amongst golfing royalty, there is no congregation as holy as the Champions dinner which, in its realm of […]

5 years ago

How good was Briege Corkery? She was so good. So good that, at the age of 14, she dominated a county final to the extent that the opposing team were convinced she was a boy, and made a complaint to the county board to prove their point. The complaint didn’t go far. Briege Corkery did. […]

5 years ago

Full forward was 23, he was one of the brightest talents in the game and on this August Sunday, he was going to town. Full back was nearer to 30, had a lifetime of hurling behind him and in a pent-up and losing Croke Park dressing room, it wasn’t the sound of a bush being […]

5 years ago

The money came for Latest Exhibition, the win went to Freewheelin Dylan. At 150/1, the locally trained Freewheelin Dylan won the Irish Grand National for trainer Dermot McLoughlin and jockey Ricky Doyle on this Easter Monday. The nine-year-old made his way to the front early on and with his jumping slick and quick, was never […]

5 years ago

They don’t call him ‘The Shark’ for nothing. When John Joseph Hanlon said that his horse Skyace was a “bloody certainty” in The Racing Post on Sunday morning, you’d have been wise to sit up and take note. It’s not too often, scrap that, barely ever do you hear trainers coming out with such bullish […]

5 years ago

As things stand, it’s going to be a long summer for the sidelined club player. With J1s off the cards, Saturday nights a distant memory and with holidays, for the most part, a no-go, it’s no wonder last week’s communication from the GAA didn’t go down well. While a summer club season could be a […]

5 years ago

Pat Critchley can’t wait for the lock-down to end, for lots of reasons, but mainly so he can get back to the job he loves. A knee injury ended the inimitable Zoom’s storied sporting career in the 90s but through his coaching, the enthusiasm, the enjoyment and all the good things about sport will never […]

5 years ago

Farrell himself was not at the session, but the buck stops with the manager. Dublin senior football manager Dessie Farrell has been suspended for 12 weeks after nine of his panellists were pictured training at Innisfails GAA club on Wednesday morning. Footballer of the Year Brian Fenton was among the players pictured at the Malahide […]

5 years ago

If you haven’t broken the Covid restrictions in the last month, you either don’t have a car or you’re flexible with the truth. A rogue respects a rogue, so when it comes to a group of footballers breaking out for a kick-around that, let’s be honest, will have about as much impact on the spread […]

5 years ago

A defiant end to a spluttering week. A week when, let’s not beat around the bush, Irish eyes were opened to the pitiful position we now find ourselves in. Delusions of glories gone by may have sustained us for a while but if beforehand, we weren’t sure as to where we stood in the international […]

5 years ago

It’s the afternoon of a government announcement. By this stage, we all know what that means… Leaks and leaks galore. A Micheal Martin ‘address to the nation’ simply wouldn’t be held without a run-up of mysteriously-acquired information about the fate of this country for the next while. It’s gotten to the stage now where the […]

5 years ago

Truncated seasons, online training sessions and God forsaken lockdowns – some things change, others remain resolutely the same. In the middle of the pandemonium you will find Pete McGrath, fresh and lively as the man who guided Down to All-Ireland titles in ’91 and ’94, fighting the good fight and raring to get back on […]

5 years ago

Making your senior international debut as a teenager is an extraordinary achievement, and it should be remembered as one of the greatest moments of your life. For Dublin 19-year-old Gavin Bazunu, the pride of that momentous occasion will always be overshadowed by the sour taste of a 1-0 loss to international minnows Luxembourg. The hope […]

5 years ago

“This is the fault of a lack of a proper player development structure and coaching structure in Ireland for many years.” We wanted to believe that the Serbia performance was a good one against a good team. We wanted to believe that while disappointing, the 3-2 loss  had enough positive signs to signs to suggest […]

5 years ago

It’s not every day, as an amateur sportsperson, you’ll get rewarded for your efforts so when Adidas came in to sponsor Conor Mortimer with a boot-deal in 2005, the Mayo man said he’d make hay when the sun shined. Leave out the slagging from teammates and the sledging from opponents and it was a win-win […]

5 years ago

Brian Kerr is a person you’d be slow to criticise. There’s something so likeable about the Dubliner’s roguish sense of humour and when you witness his obsession with the game, there’s something in its purity that just blows you away. While some pundits stumble over household names like Dusan Tadic for example, you wouldn’t be […]

5 years ago

Here we flippin’ go. The Ireland team has Seamus Coleman AND Matt Doherty… AND Enda Stevens in it. Ireland’s road to the 2022 World Cup begins in Belgrade tonight, where Stephen Kenny’s men will take on a star-studded and fancied Serbia side. A combination of injuries and some poor recent form means that the chips […]

5 years ago

When Eoin Larkin was out in Kosovo in early 2008, he didn’t have much. There was no hi-tech gym equipment, no teammates to spur him on, no hurling pitches for a puck-around and in many ways, the one sure thing was a vast selection of excuses to pick and choose from. 13 years on and […]

5 years ago

When it comes to the international stage, Irish-based athletes can often find themselves running into the wind. That’s why, when a young Irish athlete tops the class and wins a few national titles, logic veers them towards the more professional American collegiate scene where they will, for better or worse, want for nothing. The same […]

5 years ago

We’re back with a boom and you’re back with a mediocre score like 15/20.

5 years ago

All throughout this Six Nations campaign, there’s been a fire blazing in Robbie Henshaw’s stomach. With a cut about his tackling, a zip in his ball-carrying and a fearlessness in his fielding, he’s looked like a man who had a point to prove about his point to prove. It was in the Aviva Stadium on […]

5 years ago

It’s mad to think that, by the time he turned 26, Tadhg Beirne hadn’t played a game for Ireland. As we talk about him now as one of the players of the Six Nations and a stone-cold shoo-in for the British and Irish Lions squad, it’s mad to think that Tadhg Beirne was almost the […]

5 years ago

14. You’re dreaming dreams, a long way down the line, of the day you get to pull on your club’s senior jersey. Fantasies and visualisations bring you a long way and you’ll have to be honest and ask yourself the question, were you really 14 if you hadn’t heard the commentary that marks your debut […]

5 years ago

A Plus Tard. Al Boum Photo. Champ. The horse they all forgot about was Minella Indo. A perennial nearly horse, Henry De Bromhead’s eight year-old has proven himself as the real deal now. Having fell over Christmas and then disappointed at the Dublin Racing Festival in February, the horse avoided the radar coming into the […]

5 years ago

The All-Ireland final was only three and a half minutes old when Paddy Durcan heard his quad going ‘uh-oh…’ The scorching pain tearing down his right leg ten minutes later should, and would have meant game over for the vast majority of footballers. That Durcan stayed playing, virtually on one leg, is a testament to […]

5 years ago

The so-called ‘Sport of Kings’ has a new queen. In what has been a sensational week for the Irish raiders at the Cheltenham festival, Rachael Blackmore, all modesty and humility, stands head and shoulders above the rest. And though she might not want the credit for it, the Tipperary jockey hasn’t so much stole the […]

5 years ago

Put yourself in Johnathan Moore’s shoes for a second. The 27-year-old Wexford man has never rode a Cheltenham winner and Flooring Porter, Gavin Cromell’s fancied six-year-old, looked his best chance yet heading into Thursday’s stayers’ hurdle. As a jockey, these chances don’t come around all that often. As a jockey, these are the rides you […]

5 years ago

It just goes to show you, a sure thing isn’t actually a sure thing in horse-racing. The previously unbeaten Envoi Allen was the Irish banker this Cheltenham, widely tipped to bolt up and romp away with the Marsh Novice’s chase this Thursday afternoon. The prodigious seven-year-old more than likely had it in the tank to […]

5 years ago

Rachael Blackmore has gone where no female jockey has ever gone before in winning the Champion Hurdle, after she teamed up with Honeysuckle for yet another ground-breaking victory. The deadliest duo in horse-racing made it 11 wins from 11 runs but Tuesday’s scintillating triumph was their finest, most breath-taking performance yet. That it came on […]

5 years ago

Giddy up.

5 years ago

“For me, that time has come…” Munster and Ireland stalwart CJ Stander has announced his retirement from all forms of rugby. Family commitments and a long held intention to retire while he was still playing his best rugby have informed the 30-year-old’s decision. Having arrived at Munster with a “limited command of English” in 2012, […]

5 years ago

I’ve never felt fitter. I’m like a hybrid between a cross country runner and a one-man kettlebell machine. It’s been some journey since January, all discipline, no craic in a routine that could only be compared to the life and times of a devout monk. In fairness, I’ve always known Sunday as a holy day. […]

5 years ago

It’s Matt Williams’ job to call it as he sees it, and the Australian, well, he calls it as he sees it. Back in 2019, Robbie Henshaw felt the full force of the straight-shooting pundit when, after a disappointing and seemingly sluggish performance in a Six Nations championship loss to England, Williams summed up Henshaw’s […]

5 years ago

Big and strong. Stylish and graceful. It’s not often you see a big man with dainty feet and rolex wrists. It’s not often you’ll find a rugby player with the all-encompassing skill-set of Ireland’s tighthead prop Tadhg Furlong. We’ll call him the big easy. The Wexford number three isn’t long back from injury and so […]

5 years ago

Raymond Galligan scored 0-10 on his debut for the Cavan senior team. As you’ve already surmised, the Lacken club-man is a convert to the goalkeeping position, brought there by nothing other than an innocent desperation to make his inter-county career longer than it was going to be. So to say he’s now an All-Star number […]

5 years ago

He has a rule-change named after him. He brought puck-outs to new levels. He won two All-Stars. Not bad for a player who spent the first half of his inter-county career on the bench. Anthony Nash has retired now, having rocked the game with his own invention, but he’s still doing his own thing and […]

5 years ago

There won’t even be a roar at 1.31 this Cheltenham Tuesday. Christ on a bike. For the first time in the festival’s existence, the races will run off in front of deserted stands and without the customary fanfare. Perennial pilgrims are feeling a little empty this time around as that famous week in March nears […]

5 years ago

6.00 every evening. You see the Covid case numbers. You think about those who have died. Your heart goes out to those people, their grieving families and as you pause for thought about the grimness of this whole situation, you’ll thank the lord if you haven’t lost a loved one yourself. We’re now a year […]

5 years ago

Brought to you by Horse Racing Ireland As the Cheltenham festival nears, the ‘experts’ emerge from the woodwork. There’s nothing like that famous week in March to draw the sunshine followers, the spoofers, and the know-it-alls. They may not have seen a horse since the same time last year but for one week in March, […]

5 years ago

For a lad who’s meant to be down in the dumps, broken by injury, bad breaks and a longing for Mick McCarthy, Jack Byrne is holding up well on the other side of the world. Better than well, in fact. We chatted to a cheerful Dubliner from his apartment in Cyprus and even though his […]

5 years ago

On International women’s day, your knowledge of women’s sport will be tested.

5 years ago