Features

After an unpredictable, intriguing and let’s face it, at times underwhelming, hurling championship, we are down to the final two teams.  All start-of-year predictions went out the window at the weekend as Tipperary and Kilkenny battled their way into the All Ireland final with respective wins over Wexford and Limerick in what was a feast of hurling and a great …

When Patrick ‘Bonner’ Maher suffered his season-ending cruciate injury against Limerick in the Munster round-robin series, the topic of who Liam Sheedy would choose to replace him quickly arose.  Dan McCormack found himself on the bench at the start of the season but when Niall O’Meara picked up a hamstring injury against Cork in their championship opener, he and Jake …

There was a moment at the FAI’s AGM on Saturday at which you simply had to laugh. For this lot just aren’t worth the tears anymore. That’s the place they’ve brought us to. Donál Conway was centre stage, having just been re-elected as president of the association, when he told those in the crowd that they must change the culture …

In a career full of transfers, Robbie Keane had two moves to elite clubs. Both only lasted a couple of months. Keane had just turned 20 when Inter Milan paid Coventry City £13m for him. Marcello Lippi, the Inter manager, said that summer that the Irishman was one of the best young players in Europe. But Lippi was sacked after …

Irish U21 manager Stephen Kenny isn’t overly concerned about the level of hype surrounding Tottenham striker Troy Parrott, despite the 17-year old’s tender age. Parrott has been considered an incredibly promising prospect over the last year or so thanks to his sensational goalscoring record at underage level for Spurs, but he has come under increased scrutiny as of late, due …

In association with “Them are the kind of decisions and you’d always be saying to them when you’d be cutting off the panel that it wasn’t an easy decision and you’d hope maybe two or three years down the line they’d come along and prove you wrong and we’d be delighted if that happened.” Former Galway minor manager, Mattie Murphy, …

It was difficult not to get swept away in the furore around Shane Lowry’s Open Championship victory given the magnitude of what the Clara man achieved. Lowry blew his world-class competition out of the water in Portrush before winning by six shots and scenes of the Offaly native walking up the 18th fairway, fighting his way through the crowd as …

The social media pages belonging to Megan Rapinoe are very interesting for the very reason that they are actually not very interesting at all. It starts out, by way of an introduction, telling us that she’s the co-founder of “The Megan Rapinoe Brand” which genuinely is a tell-tale sign. From there it descends into a dull and standard sale around …

It was billed as the big game of the weekend, hence the 4 pm Sunday throw-in time, and it proved to be everything we expected and more as Kerry and Donegal played out a cracking contest in Croke Park in phase two of the Super 8s. You’d be forgiven for thinking that we weren’t in for a humdinger at HQ …

*** Originally published on July 20. It’s been almost three years since James McCarthy’s last cap for the Republic of Ireland in a 3-1 victory over Moldova in Chisinau. The Everton man started in midfield and was a calming figure in his usual holding role as a brace from James McClean and another from Shane Long gave Martin O’Neill’s side …

10 years ago today, Cristiano Ronaldo donned the famous white of Real Madrid for the first time following his then world record £80 million move from Manchester United. One of the finest players of this generation, the Portuguese phenom would go on to spend nine incredible seasons at the Bernabeu scoring 450 goals in just 438 games, winning four Champions …

This upcoming Premier League season could be a crucial one for a host of young Irish players as they look to make the breakthrough at the highest level. There is a plethora of talent from an Irish perspective with plenty of players being included in first-team plans throughout the pre-season as they look to impress and take their chance ahead …

The second phase of the Super 8s takes centre stage this week as Croke Park is set to host two double-header events on Saturday and Sunday. First up on Saturday sees Cork take on Tyrone followed by the meeting of Dublin and Roscommon with Sunday’s pairing at HQ seeing Mayo versus Meath followed by the clash between Kerry and Donegal. …

With a break in the All Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, we have a moment to catch our breath and reflect on what has been an intriguing competition thus far.  We have experienced huge shocks in the championship already, not least Galway’s exit in the provincial stages at the hands of Dublin, and Mattie Kenny’s sides subsequent loss to Laois which …

Reporter: “Do you think the luck of an Irishman got England over the line?” Eoin Morgan: “We had Allah with us as well. I spoke to Adil (Rashid), he said; ‘Allah was definitely with us’. And I said; ‘we had the rub of the green’. It actually epitomises our team. We’ve got a quite diverse background and cultures and guys …

There’s something cringe-worthy about those open letters you see from journalists in sport. As if the target audience should fall under the spell of their wisdom and bow way down to their thinking on a subject. On occasion though, they are called for and this is one of those cases. Apologies in advance, but needs must. After all, here we …

Sunday sees the renewed rivalry of the two most successful sides in hurling when Cork and Kilkenny battle it out in Croke Park for a place in the All-Ireland semi-finals.  It’s a rivalry as long as time. Their first All-Ireland final meeting came all the way back in 1893 and to date, no two teams have met in more All-Ireland …

Sean McMahon reporting from Galway Friday’s open training session at the Sportsground in Galway was supposedly one of the ‘light’ sessions taking place in what is Ireland’s third week of pre-World Cup training.  If this is considered light or easy-going then it provides an indication to just how hard Ireland are working to right the wrongs of their 2019 Six …