Famous Foreign People in Irish Sport

Seanchai wrote: »

Eusebio Pedroza (1985), Steve Davis (1985) and, most of all, Pedro Delgado (1987).

I remember Eusebio Pedroza, who was beaten by Barry McGuigan in 1985. I also remember McGuigan being sponsored by Irish Permanent: the people's choice, "Thank You very much Mr Eastwood" and his father singing Danny Boy. It was a great night, tarnished by McGuigan's later whinging against Barney Eastwood and most of all by McGuigan abandoning Ireland and taking out British citizenship. Yes, he won a great fight, but what a myopic idiot.


Another famous one is Steve Davis, who while brilliant always seemed to be unhappy. I remember about 20 people at home watching the snooker World Final between him and Dennis Taylor, who always seemed to be happy. Davis was widely considered the best player in the world, so we didn't expect Dennis to win. The match seemed, to my young eyes, to go on forever into the early morning. I remember they did all these snooker tricks as a show beforehand and they were fascinating.

But when Taylor finally won, it was absolutely brilliant in the dark, emigration-filled days of 1985. Unlike today, of course! Ahem.

Most of all, who could forget Spain's Pedro Delgado. What an absolutely amazing sportsman. When Stephen Roche beat him to win the Tour de France in 1987 it was extraordinary. It went on so long that everybody in the country knew all about Pedro Delgado by the end of it.

It was, and remains, amazing that a country of 5-6 million people could produce somebody to win the premier competition of a genuinely worldwide sport. To me, Stephen Roche's victory is still the greatest by any Irish person in international sport - easily up there with the Olympic gold medals, and far surpassing any Irish soccer or rugby victories.