What are the biggest “what ifs” in Irish sports?

What if Ciarán Carey had not scored that point against Clare in 1996.......

You haven't a clue.

As a Man Utd supporter what if the Munich air disaster never happened. We would probably have won 3 more European cups.

South Korea were not there for the taking.

It's very clear there was a conspiracy to get them to the semi.

I agree if GLM had ridden it would have been a different race, but given Roches ‘form’ that year he was well ahead of others.

Completely agree about Mayo. My original post was very much tongue in cheek about the curse.

Orourkeda1's assertion that Mayo have lost lost so many finals because the public in the county don't accept their shortcomings couldn't be further from the truth. These are the same 'supporters' who abused Ciaran McDonald for years.

Being from Mayo I think we too often don't believe we're good enough and this feeds into the players. We don't have that enate belief going into finals that we'll win in the way that Kerry, Dublin, Tyrone and even Galway have. Instead Mayo has an inferiority complex that I don't know is the cause or the result of not being able to win an All-Ireland after appearing in 13 finals since 1989.

The serious 'what if' regarding Mayo football isn't the curse but what if that freak bounce over the bar to level the 1996 final for Meath hadn't gone over and brought the game to a replay. If Mayo had won that final I firmly believe they would have won at least 2 more in the time that followed.

What if the Chinese who came from nowhere to beat Sonia O'Sullivan had either not been on performance enhancing drugs (PEDS), or were tested properly?

Ditto Zabo who beat her in an Olympic final. And was subsequently caught at a border with a boot full of banned drugs~ a year later.

Ditto Gary O'Toole's competitors in an Olympic final. He came 4th, the 3 medalists who came in just ahead of him all got caught for using PEDs in the following years.....

IF Stephen Jones landed the last penalty for Wales versus Ireland for the grand slam in 2009!? Ireland wouldn't have finally won this one after winning their only previous one in 1948!!!!

Mayo have been in 8 of the last 20 All Ireland Finals. 40%

Tyrone, Donegal, Kerry and Dublin have beaten them.

a curse, unfair Dublin boooo, referee, the hoodooo, the voodooo, the booodooo ? and whatever other hokey they can come up with…

just.. not.. good.. enough..

whenever Mayo do win, I believe it’s because of their unfair spirituality advantage….of having both Knock AND Croagh Patrick in their county, that’s as ridiculous as the hokey they pedal.

They have contested 40% of the last 20 finals and they haven’t managed to convert a single opportunity into victory, despite on several occasions having benefited from some outright endemically poor refereeing performances that aided their cause.

players, management have to look at themselves for ‘what if’…maybe ‘what if’ in certain finals they’d have tried to play football instead of going out loosing the head WWE style and with slack refereeing, still lost 😊

Tommy Byrne (racing driver), if he wasn't such a piss head would he had got a full time drive with Mclaren after testing their car and setting the fastest time of the day on his first ever time in a F1 car. Did Ron Dennis just see all the problems down the road.

Are you sure about Gary O'Toole, I don't even recall him making a B final nevermind coming 4th in the Olympics.

As a young teen, and a huge fan of our Irish soccer team, I had utter hatred for Raúl Fernandes Nazaré because of those refereeing decisions. The game was far more attractive to watch back then too!

Great idea for a thread OP.

Yes, 1982 should have been our first time at a tournament, not 1988. That Irish side was at least as good as the Northern Ireland team which beat the hosts Spain in the group stages.