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Why is there ever a debate about who was the best Irish Sports person ever? *READ OP*

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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 5,453 ✭✭✭valoren


    CQD wrote: »
    We could have won that world cup..

    Because we would have totally outclassed that Brazil team.


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,930 ✭✭✭✭Fr Tod Umptious


    valoren wrote: »
    Rory McIlroy.

    4 Majors and constantly bothering the number one in the world spot.

    But he's a nordie so it doesn't count.

    The problem with the nordies is there is always this are they Irish,care they British ambiguity.

    And McElroy is guilty of causing that confusion more than many others.


  • Posts: 7,712 ✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    valoren wrote: »
    Because we would have totally outclassed that Brazil team.

    Not saying we’d much chance but that Brazil team was beatable without outclassing them. It was one of the poorest latter stages of a World Cup ever.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,166 ✭✭✭Still waters


    valoren wrote: »
    Rory McIlroy.

    4 Majors and constantly bothering the number one in the world spot.

    Didnt he identify as british, or would have if he played in the Olympics


  • Posts: 13,712 ✭✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    valoren wrote: »
    Rory McIlroy.

    4 Majors and constantly bothering the number one in the world spot.

    Op is talking about sports, not games. Golf is no more a sport than Connect-4, which isn't even intended as an insult by the way. Both are very enjoyable games.


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  • Posts: 7,712 ✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    Op is talking about sports, not games. Golf is no more a sport than Connect-4, which isn't even intended as an insult by the way. Both are very enjoyable games.

    Someone mentioned a jockey earlier which counts as neither.


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,247 ✭✭✭✭salmocab


    Didnt he identify as british, or would have if he played in the Olympics

    He had said he would play in the olympics but pulled out for health reasons, can’t remember but was there something to do with a virus from a swamp or something.
    It’s a very complicated thing in fairness he’s British and still Irish, he grew up golfing in an all Ireland system which most sports bar soccer have.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 475 ✭✭AdrianBalboa


    Michelle Smith for me, or Katie Taylor.


  • Registered Users Posts: 24,693 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    mrkiscool2 wrote: »
    Its between Taylor and Padraig Harrington for me. I think with what KT has done she edges it but I will always have a soft spot for Paddy.

    No way would you put Harrington up there, he’s shat the bed in numerous big competitions when he’s been leading. Ok three majors and around 06/07/08 he was something else.... a real purple patch..But .... blowing a three shot lead somewhere with three holes to play and he is interviewed... “ Padraig, you must be devastated ?”... PH : “ahhh sure, ahhh sure, look it’s a lovely day isn’t it.” He’s been second so often that it’s just bewildering.

    Roy Keane :

    7 Premier League Championships

    4 FA Cups

    1 Champions League

    1 intercontinental Cup

    1 Scottish League

    1 Scottish League Cup

    12 years at United, 13 trophies.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,453 ✭✭✭valoren


    Harrington without a doubt.

    First Irish (as in non nordie) to win a major.
    First European to win a major in 27 attempts.
    Then he goes and defends the Open championship the next year.
    The first European to do that in 102 years

    Then he just goes and does what no European had done in 78 years and win the PGA.

    The above coupled with his numerous other tour wins makes him hands down the best.

    If ROI only then yes, its Harrington. Roy Keane running box to box, winning the ball back and then passing to a creative player was, by his own admission, his game. He was great at that but Harrington possessed the same desire minus the thuggery of Keane.

    Even though he peaked at the end of the 00's the idea that he'd just won three majors and looked to get even better is testament to his winning attitude. Others might have sought to maintain their swing after such success but he always strove to improve in spite of that. The crazy game drove him a bit crazy and his subsequent form suffered but if you could only bottle the guys desire and dedication to the game. That he's a genuinely nice man coupled with his achievements then hes the greatest Irish sportsman for me.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 2,098 ✭✭✭Poorside


    Strumms wrote: »
    No way would you put Harrington up there, he’s shat the bed in numerous big competitions when he’s been leading. Ok three majors and around 06/07/08 he was something else.... a real purple patch..But .... blowing a three shot lead somewhere with three holes to play and he is interviewed... “ Padraig, you must be devastated ?”... PH : “ahhh sure, ahhh sure, look it’s a lovely day isn’t it.” He’s been second so often that it’s just bewildering.

    Roy Keane :

    7 Premier League Championships

    4 FA Cups

    1 Champions League

    1 intercontinental Cup

    1 Scottish League

    1 Scottish League Cup

    Fair play to him for winning all those

    Katie Taylor is the correct answer. Closely followed by Paul O Donovan.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,453 ✭✭✭valoren


    Op is talking about sports, not games. Golf is no more a sport than Connect-4, which isn't even intended as an insult by the way. Both are very enjoyable games.

    ..yet theres always this comment whenever theres a sport thread in AH and golf gets mentioned. Of course it's a sport.

    Sport - an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.

    You have to get a ball around a course which can be upwards of 7,500 yards long in as few shots as possible. That's the competition. The raw physical exertion bit is trying to accomplish this by hitting the ball a very long way. The full golf swing is a resonant athletic movement. To be remotely competitive at an elite level requires a swing speed of over 110 mph for the driver. The skill aspect is doing that movement very accurately while then having to employ finesse and deft touch when the ball is much closer to the hole. Raw power and controlled finesse in the same sport. It can be played individually or within a team per the very definition of Sport. The Ryder Cup for example is one of sports great exhibitions.


  • Registered Users Posts: 24,693 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    Poorside wrote: »
    Fair play to him for winning all those

    Katie Taylor is the correct answer. Closely followed by Paul O Donovan.

    Katie never achieved as much as Roy, she didn’t consistently achieve over a similar timeframe... ok, it’s difficult to compare but at this time, she quite simply, hasn’t.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 475 ✭✭AdrianBalboa


    Poorside wrote: »
    Fair play to him for winning all those

    Katie Taylor is the correct answer. Closely followed by Paul O Donovan.

    Katie Taylor has totally dominated her sport for almost twenty years but the patriarchal mainstream media and social media sites like this one will have you believe that she isn’t as important as Roy Keane or Brian O Driscoll because she has “less competition.”


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,875 ✭✭✭Edgware


    cdeb wrote: »
    You're mixing up your Yeatses there!
    Or was it Yeats the racehorse, More Ascot Gold Cups than Roy


  • Posts: 13,712 ✭✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    Someone mentioned a jockey earlier which counts as neither.

    How's that? The strain jockeys put their bodies under, in and out of the saddle, is immense. And they're competing against others in a test of speed, which makes racing a sport.

    You don't really think jockeys just sit back and steer, do you? Race riding, especially jumps, is a fairly gruelling activity. Obviously a sport.

    Would rank Charlie Swan as one of our greatest ever athletes in this particular field. Sadly not dieectly involved in the Irish scene anymore.


  • Posts: 7,712 ✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    How's that? The strain jockeys put their bodies under, in and out of the saddle, is immense. And they're competing against others in a test of speed, which makes racing a sport.

    You don't really think jockeys just sit back and steer, do you? Race riding, especially jumps, is a fairly gruelling activity. Obviously a sport.

    Would rank Charlie Swan as one of our greatest ever athletes in this particular field. Sadly not dieectly involved in the Irish scene anymore.

    It’s just a vehicle for the gambling industry. Unlike soccer, et it wouldn’t exist at all as a spectator sport without being able to bet on it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,098 ✭✭✭Poorside


    Strumms wrote: »
    Katie never achieved as much as Roy, she didn’t consistently achieve over a similar timeframe... ok, it’s difficult to compare but at this time, she quite simply, hasn’t.


    Are you smoking something really strong? Dominated her sport and elevated it to become an acceptable Olympic sport and then changed tack at the height of her dominance to go and control the pro ranks.
    And want about O Donovan, World champion 4 years in a row in an extremely tough and competitive sport?


  • Registered Users Posts: 617 ✭✭✭afro man


    Mad_maxx wrote: »
    he identified as british so has to be excluded

    Who identified him as British.. Born n bred in the island of ireland


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,144 ✭✭✭✭cj maxx


    Eamon Coughlan


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  • Posts: 13,712 ✭✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    It’s just a vehicle for the gambling industry. Unlike soccer, et it wouldn’t exist at all as a spectator sport without being able to bet on it.
    No, I strongly disagree here. Horses are like an addiction for a lot of people in racing, perhaps the majority. You could get rid of all the bookmakers, and racing would still go ahead, albeit with very limited resources.

    People give their whole working lives to the sport in a way that makes no logical sense. I've known people who've given up college to work for less than minimum wage and 5am starts, who will never make it and will be banjaxed at 40. There's a level of uncompensated passion in racing that you wouldn't even come across in many GAA clubs. It's not normal.


  • Registered Users Posts: 617 ✭✭✭afro man


    Mad_maxx wrote: »
    George Best was as british as finchely


    paul mc grath was a better player , at least for ireland

    never saw him play but anyone ive spoken to , claims john giles was better than keane

    Paul mc grath born in the UK.. So is he now excluded for being British


  • Registered Users Posts: 12 Lorcanber1


    Eamon Coughlan would have to be my choice
    Chairman of the boards!


  • Registered Users Posts: 617 ✭✭✭afro man


    Another nordie.. Joey Dunlop


  • Posts: 7,712 ✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    afro man wrote: »
    Who identified him as British.. Born n bred in the island of ireland

    He’s a bonfire merchant and nothing to do with the country of Ireland.


  • Posts: 2,799 ✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    Strumms wrote: »
    No way would you put Harrington up there, he’s shat the bed in numerous big competitions when he’s been leading. Ok three majors and around 06/07/08 he was something else.... a real purple patch..But .... blowing a three shot lead somewhere with three holes to play and he is interviewed... “ Padraig, you must be devastated ?”... PH : “ahhh sure, ahhh sure, look it’s a lovely day isn’t it.” He’s been second so often that it’s just bewildering.

    Roy Keane :

    7 Premier League Championships

    4 FA Cups

    1 Champions League

    1 intercontinental Cup

    1 Scottish League

    1 Scottish League Cup

    12 years at United, 13 trophies.

    All on his own


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,562 ✭✭✭ahnowbrowncow


    Lorcanber1 wrote: »
    Eamon Coughlan would have to be my choice
    Chairman of the boards!

    He's a good shout. However, Ray Flynn holds the national record for 1500m and the mile


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,143 ✭✭✭✭B.A._Baracus


    italodisco wrote: »
    I hate to say it, as I can't stand him, but conor mcgregor would certainly be up there on the list

    Agreed.
    I am not the biggest fan of his attitude but you could go to the arse end of Mongolia and someone would have heard of the MMA fighter Conor McGregor.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,098 ✭✭✭Poorside


    Agreed.
    I am not the biggest fan of his attitude but you could go to the arse end of Mongolia and someone would have heard of the MMA fighter Conor McGregor.


    Well that certainly makes him out greatest ever sportsman, was Hitler a sportsman of any sort?


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  • Registered Users Posts: 5,875 ✭✭✭Edgware


    Katie Taylor has totally dominated her sport for almost twenty years but the patriarchal mainstream media and social media sites like this one will have you believe that she isn’t as important as Roy Keane or Brian O Driscoll because she has “less competition.”

    Its easy dominate your sport for 20 years when there is no competition


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