Mine? It was one of two. Donegal winning the Ulster championship, or winning the All Ireland. Oh yes, there was the look on Sir Alex Ferguson’s face when Man City took the Premiership off Man U at the very last minute. It was made all the better because I was the only Blue in the pub at the time, and there were several (very loud) Reds who had already started celebrating. It helped too that the QPR fans (the largest …
The unsurprising, for many reasons, winner of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2012 may have been this year’s Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins, a well-deserved third place went to Olympic and US Open tennis champion, Andy Murray. But the Guardian’s Paul Owens has spotted something strange about the BBC’s Panel awarding ‘Team of the Year’ to the Olympic Team GB/Paralympics GB. From the BBC’s own “SPOTY Voting & Judging: Terms & conditions 2012” [dated 12 December 2012] TEAM OF THE YEAR For the …
Whilst I am at it, congratualtions to Celtic for making it through to the last 16. I’m no fan of the club, but I am a big fan of their latest recruit, Glenties man, Jim McGuinness. This is the best I could do with his interview on Saturday night. Well worth watching all the way through for a master class on leadership. Apologies for the poor quality of the sound. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written …
“Don’t do it Jim” is all I can hear in the back of my ancestral Donegal head. But it would be hard blame Jim McGuinness for taking a pretty cool package from Neil Lennon’s Celtic Football Club. It’s not as though he’s unqualified: McGuinness, who has a masters in sports psychology, has struck up a good relationship with Celtic manager Neil Lennon, a former Armagh minor footballer, while the club’s administration are known to have been impressed by his achievements …
Well, I’m no fan of Celtic. Or the Old Firm for that matter. I was in Glasgow just over two weeks and it’s clear that the levels of resentment between supporters of the two clubs is as high (higher perhaps) than it has ever been. But fair play to Neil Lennon and his players for an exceptional performance last night… It even pushed an old rock star to tears. It would be good to think that success on the pitch …
The BBC are reporting that the Royal Mail have decided that Eglinton deserves an honorary gold post box. As does Glengormley and Seaforde, County Down. From the BBC report The honour was a response to overwhelming public support for the tributes, said Royal Mail. “Honorary gold post boxes for Jason, Michael and Bethany are an appropriate tribute for our local Paralympic heroes given their tremendous achievements and the very clear community support for this,” said Barbara Roulston, Head of External Relations …
Okay, so there’ve been pages now written on how great the Paralympics were in #London2012. But to give praise where it is undoubtedly due, it was probably Beijing that first raised the bar and the status of the Paralympic games to, if not equal status, then a great deal closer to the Olympics than at any time before. London’s achievement was to repackage and reengineer it as a product, not least by giving it the time and public attention that …
It’s easy to forget how long Ireland has gone about the sporting world without the least sign of serious success. When Padraig Harrington became the first Irish man since Fred Daly to win the Open it was only 2007. Rory McIlroy won a silver medal as top amateur in the same year. With Harrington joined by GMac, Darren Clarke and the boy from Holywood, modern Irish golfers have redefined what success looks like… Christy O’Connor Snr was in or near …
Apparently, double gold medal winning, and double world record breaking, Team Ireland Paralympian sprinter, Jason Smyth, would quite like a gold-painted post box in his home town of Eglinton. What does anything think, do we deserve a #GoldPostBox in Eglinton because I live and am from Northern Ireland @postoffice @royalmailnews RT — Jason Smyth (@smyth_jason) September 8, 2012 According to an earlier Belfast Telegraph report, he would have the support of Dame Mary Peters and the Northern Ireland Sports Minister, Sinn Féin’s …
This week’s #DigitalLunch will consider what we’ve learned from #London2012? For Helen Kearney Paralympic equestrian medal winner on RTE this morning, “It’s really about your ability and not your disability”… And, was there something in Michelle Obama’s first talking point about what wounded veterans still have to offer (“they are not only going to walk again, they’re going to run and run Marathons” informed by US experience of #London2012? In a typically acerbic blog this morning, Alastair Campbell thinks there …
I won’t deny that sitting down to watch the Paralympics is, at first, an uncomfortable experience… We are seeing a range of disability that in the normal run of public life are generally kept well out of the public gaze… It’s odd seeing the Chinese backstroke swimmer holding on to a towel in her teeth… And it’s disconcerting when your seven year asks the blunt question ‘what’s wrong with this lot’ as a new set of un-decodable track event athletes ready …
With barely enough time to catch breath after all those golds, there has been a glut of reflections on how the London Olympics have either redefined or exhibited a new Britishness. Over at the Daily Mail, Dominic Sandbrook is unequivocal, calling it a rebirth of Britishness: Coming so soon after the triumph of the Diamond Jubilee, which reaffirmed the deep bond between the British people and our Royal Family, the Games have been a valuable reminder of everything that most of …
There’s a thin line between celebrity and character. When I first blogged about Rory McIlroy winning the West of Ireland Open at the age of 15 (I think), the thread (now lost) focused somewhat on what people saw at the time as the negatives of bringing up a sporting child prodigy. Television, then the tabloids, and now the net have each in turn given us a sense that we know everything there is to know about the various public characters …
As the spectacularly successful London 2012 Olympics came to a tumultuous conclusion, Northern Ireland golfer Rory McIlroy closed in on his second major title – the 2012 US PGA. As the Irish Times live blog noted He will be younger at 23 years and three months than Tiger Woods was when winning his second major. Stunning performance. By 8 shots! [added link] Pete Baker
London 2012 has brought lots of tears, triumphs and disappointments… I was lucky enough to be in Weymouth yesterday for a near bid for success by Ireland’s Annalise Murphy, who did her country and her family proud by running the Dutch and Belgian women pretty close near the end. She’s 22, and now knows what Olympic loss is like, and she has the talent to come back again. She gave the many Irish who turned up in the Dorset seaside …
Today, I am mostly going to be Weymouth… enjoying the Olympic Sailing competition and the beach, and the kids all in equal measure… I shall also be wearking my old green Irish rugby shirt (replica, not real) for the 1.30 Laser Redial race with the young Annalise Murphy, one of Ireland’s great medal hopes… I shall be posting some stuff to Twitter, or if you want to follow most of it (and even contribute some stuff yourself, this dedicated page …
From the Gleaner– Some of the comments are wonderful, The quintessential athlete! A symbol of excellence. An extraordinary strategist. Congratulations Mr. Usain St. Leo Bolt. You are one in three million! And, Happy 50th Independence Anniversary, my beloved Jamaicans!!!! CONGRATS to our blessed & highly-talented Olympic STARS!!! BEST BY ANY TEST!!!! JAMAICA TO THE WORLD … EVERYTIME !!!!! Shelly-Ann not bad either – watch the video of her family celebrating. Bolt’s run summed up nicely in a comment in the …
Barring outrageous fortune, Bradley Wiggins will become the first ever British winner of the Tour de France this afternoon. It’s been a dominant performance by Wiggins and Team Sky, emphasised by his stamping his authority on this year’s race with a second stage win in yesterday’s 53.5km individual time trial. That result, 1 minute 16 seconds ahead of his second-placed team-mate, the Kenyan-born British rider, Chris Froome, silenced the critics who had speculated that Froome, who will finish second overall, was the stronger …
This week features two events highlighting Northern Ireland’s Olympic past and future in athletics. Tomorrow evening, 18 July, will be an opportunity to see top local athletes compete against Olympic runners from Qatar, Egypt, Oman and Djbouti. The Antrim Stadium will play host to the first Brian Downing Memorial International, organised by Athletics Northern Ireland and Lagan Valley Athletics Club, at 7 pm. Saturday 21 July the Kennedy Kane McArthur Festival of Running will take place in Dervock. This event honours the …
Managerialism. That’s what they call it. Shuffling the deck chairs with little or no point or sense of long term value other than to perform a job. Call me, generally, neutral on the FAI/IFA thing, but last night missed the passion for the green shirt shown in former days by Gerry Armstrong, Sammy Mc, Niall Quinn and even that old fake Irishman Tony Cascarino. There wasn’t even trace of Jack’s much derided route one to goal. Trap’s game plan was …
