IT IS only a couple of weeks more than 12 months ago to the day - February 20 to be exact - that Rosaleen McGrath went to watch John play...

LEGENDARY point-to-point producer John Nallen has called on racing’s superpowers such as Coolmore, Godolphin and the Aga Khan to forego...

CHLOE FOXE is taking time out from completing a college assignment to chat. The conversation flows, the 21-year-old at ease with...

RACING is all about opinions but some count more than others. When it comes to rating horses under national hunt rules, senior...

NOEL O’Brien is the Irish senior national hunt handicapper, responsible for rating every horse that runs under national hunt rules. It...

I MOVED to Kildare the week before Christmas in 2002, to take up a new job as sports editor of The Kildare Nationalist. It was exciting...

"That man should be made a saint. Words can't describe how amazing he was, and still is, for me.” Mark Enright “The only standard is the...

LUKE WADE is an 11-year-old from Old Parish, Co Waterford who is entranced by football and so you would expect his favourite footballer,...

“Someone told me when the time is right to give up you’ll know and that’s what I’ve gone on. It never crossed my mind this winter but you...

ANNA FARRELL has noticed a transformation towards camogie among the general public in Kilkenny. It had been difficult to gain any...

GALWAY senior Cillian McDaid and last year’s All-Ireland minor winner with Kerry Stefan Okunbor have been invited to attend the annual...

ZACH Tuohy chuckles at the memory of that first phone call from AFL scout Gerard Sholly. At 17, he didn’t know an Australian accent from...

FORMER Cavan footballer and current AFL coach Nicholas Walsh has rejected criticism of the recruitment of GAA players by AFL clubs. Mark...

AROUND Kilkenny, if the names Shefflin, Cody and Holden come in conversation, the likelihood is that hurling will be the topic, with...

OISÍN MURPHY seems to have been around a long time but then he was so young when he shot to prominence. He handled that meteoric rise...

THERE was a time, even as she had barely entered her teens, when it seemed inevitable that the Niamh McCarthy would play for Cork. “I...

IT WAS the second minute of injury time when Aisling Dunphy entered the fray. Kilkenny were four points clear of Cork, their supporters...

IRISH Grand National-winning jockey Robbie Power says that the updated Non-Trier Rule means that jockeys will be riding for punters and...

SLIGO manager Niall Carew must plan without a number of key players when his side make the journey to New York for their preliminary...

IT IS another of those quintessential national hunt stories that captures the very essence of jump racing. “Katie has done a great job...

NIALL Carew has called on the GAA to facilitate the provision of specific boxes for management and coaching teams in grounds around the...

IN ANOTHER year, Padraig O’Connor might have been preparing with the Kerry squad for Sunday’s Allianz Football League Division 1 final...

KILDARE coach Ronan Sweeney has pinpointed the Lilies’ last-gasp defeat to Derry in round 3 of the Allianz Football League as an...

THE congratulations cards are wedged above the fireplace, battling each other for a good posi. Room is tight, particularly with the...

IT WAS notable how even former Ireland and Lions skipper Paul O’Connell was remarking on the shudderingly physical nature of the...

"This wasn’t meant to be no sad song. We’ve heard too much of that before." - Paul Brady, The Island “I’d be a lot worse if it happened...

“Do you think you’ll ever get outta here?” “Me?” Red sighs. “Yeah. One day, when I’ve got a long, white beard and two or three marbles...

HE WELCOMES you at the front door, the smoke he exhales more vivid in the zero-degree night. You not given those up yet? “For Lent” comes...

“OH FOR fuck’s sake. Not again.” When you are a 34-year-old inter-county footballer recognising the symptoms of a stroke, having suffered...

BRYAN Cooper seems to have been around a long time but one look at the cherubic face and you are reminded that he is only 23, giving the...

CIARA Quirke won most of the plaudits as a result of scoring a goal and nine points in Myshall’s 1-10 to 1-9 defeat of Eglish in the AIB...

SOME players have a knack for scoring goals and Mary Kelly fits into that category. It has ever been thus. Mary Kelly wheels away after...

“NÍ NEART go cur le chéile!” Slaughtneil skipper Aoife Ní Chaiside lifts the Bill & Agnes Carroll Cup (Photos: INPHO/Tommy Grealy) These...

RUBY Walsh is one of the greatest jump jockeys the world has ever seen. Everyone has different criteria for judging the best. Even the...

IRISH riders were in fantastic form yesterday, scoring a hat-trick of wins against top-class opposition in the Middle East, Europe and...

WHERE to start with Eddie Lynam’s season? The norm is to go with the beginning, isn’t it? “When I was standing at the parade ring on...

WHEN Sole Power blitzed a high class field in the Nunthorpe Stakes at York’s Ebor meeting last August at the eye-popping price of 100/1,...

IT IS undeniable that turning professional has brought change in Katie Taylor’s life, but only around the edges. The really important...

A FIELD of seven have been declared for the Grade 2 Paddy Power Onside App Novice Hurdle headed by the Ted Walsh-trained Any Second Now,...

IN HORSE racing, breeding carries as much weight for the human protagonists as the equine ones. Being a Mullins, Carberry or Taaffe is...

IRELAND’S badminton squad bowed out of the European Mixed Team Championships in Lubin, Poland last Wednesday, after defeats to Sweden and...

SERENDIPTIOUS is how Patrick Ryan describes the sequence of events that saw Carol Nolan tell her interviewers at Horse Racing Ireland...

AN ECONOMIC Impact Analysis has revealed that people visiting from Ireland spent €22.3m (£19.23m) at the Cheltenham Festival last March,...

WHILE many in Kerry are decrying the so-called poaching of the county’s top players by Aussie rules clubs, teenage AFL hopeful Stefan...

GRIFFITH Swords Thunder will be celebrating once more this week, as the club has been awarded both the Men’s Super League Player of the...

IRELAND'S highest-rated chaser Douvan will be the star on show at Punchestown on Sunday when lining up in the Boylesports Tied Cottage...

THE quiet village of Owning nestles in a small valley, resting neatly between two inclines. Descending from the Carrick-On-Suir side, a...

THE Culture, Media and Sport Committee has secured a debate on the governance of football governance in the House of Commons. This...

RASSIE Erasmus has made 11 changes for Munster's Guinness PRO12 game against Edinburgh Rugby tomorrow evening in Myreside (7.35pm). A...

NEWLY-APPOINTED head coach of the Irish senior men's basketball team, Pete Strickland has today announced the first two appointments to...