Mary Hannigan

1 day ago | irishtimes.com | Mary Hannigan

A week ago, Darragh Ó Sé “couldn’t make an argument for Cork getting anywhere close” to beating Kerry in their Munster championship meeting on Saturday, so today he’s doffing his cap to them for taking the game in to extra-time. “It was great to see some of that old fire back in the Cork bellies,” he writes, having a notion that the team being written off helped put it there. The challenge now, though, is to kick on and prove that they don’t need to see the Kerry jersey to keep that fire burning.

2 days ago | irishtimes.com | Mary Hannigan

More than 12 months went by after Marc Canham’s appointment as the Football Association of Ireland’s director of football before he held an on-the-record briefing with the media. There were times over the following two years that he must have wished he’d maintained radio silence, so often were seemingly positive announcements overshadowed by controversy.

2 days ago | irishtimes.com | Mary Hannigan

“On the surface,” writes Gerry Thornley, “all seems hunky dory” with Irish rugby. The men’s team are ranked third in the world, the women’s side fifth, and Leinster are one win away from becoming the first side to reach four successive Champions Cup finals. But? “Scratch underneath and the gap between Leinster and the other three provinces has never been bigger, nor more alarming”, he says.

3 days ago | irishtimes.com | Mary Hannigan

It’s always best, of course, to have some perspective when ranking the greatness of sporting moments against historic stuff like, say, the invention of the wheel, the discovery of penicillin, the moon landing and the first recipe for onion rings. But it’s not easy. “I got a text there from Jamie Dornan, he said he’s never woken up happier – and he’s got three daughters,” James Nesbitt revealed when he turned up on Sky News to talk about Rory McIlroy’s Masters triumph.

4 days ago | irishtimes.com | Mary Hannigan

It’s almost two decades since any Republic of Ireland internationals got their hands on winners’ medals in Europe’s primary club competition – Emma Byrne, Ciara Grant and Yvonne Tracy being part of the Arsenal squad that beat Sweden’s Umea over two legs in what was then called the Uefa Women’s Cup, now the Champions League.