In his team talk after the win, Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson<\/a> warned the players against the false friends who would already be swarming into their texts trying to pal up with them. \u201cWe all have a lot of friends when we win,\u201d noted the manager. Good advice, which the FAI will surely ignore if some exciting potential granny-rulers suddenly feel the stirrings of a long-forgotten Irishness as the World Cup<\/a> draws near.<\/p>\n Hallgr\u00edmsson told the players to enjoy the moment but to remember it was just the start of a journey: \u201cSuccess is a continuous journey in the right direction,\u201d he said. He urged them to look forward to bigger tests, even greater moments. <\/p>\n It\u2019s right and good that ambitious sportsmen should always be thinking: what\u2019s next? But that\u2019s for them, not the rest of us, who should instead simply give thanks that we got to live that moment together. <\/p>\n [\u00a0Neuropsychologist Ian Robertson: Troy Parrott\u2019s words show a remarkable quality of Irish cultureOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n Already this 2026 World Cup has given us far more than we expected. Those of us who have been watching Ireland longer than any of these players have been alive know something they don\u2019t: it doesn\u2019t get any better than this. Admittedly, this is one of those rare cases when you really would be happy to be proved wrong. \u2013 Ken Early<\/b><\/p>\n The Masters, April 13th<\/b><\/p>\n The emotions ran high that Sunday evening in April at Augusta National Golf Club, as the green jacket was \u2013 finally \u2013 slipped on to Rory McIlroy<\/a>\u2019s shoulders by Scottie Scheffler. A moment in time<\/a> that elevated the Northern Irishman, the newest Masters champion, into an elite club of just six men to complete the career Grand Slam.<\/p>\n Tears ran freely, understandably enough, given his journey to that point of deliverance; not just for all the years it had taken McIlroy to reach his destiny, but also for the days and final hours of this 89th edition of the Masters on hallowed golfing terrain.<\/p>\n I attended my first Masters back in 1991, when Ian Woosnam won, and Ronan Rafferty \u2013 competing in his second and last Masters \u2013 was the only Irish player in the field. He missed the cut. In truth, back then, the prospect of an Irish winner of the great tournament was not even entertained and there followed many years where there were not even Irish players in the field.<\/p>\n Yet, the past two decades have seen a golden generation of Major champions from Ireland: P\u00e1draig Harrington, Graeme McDowell, Darren Clarke, Shane Lowry … and, more than anyone, McIlroy.<\/p>\n McIlroy\u2019s win at the Masters made it 11 Major title wins by Irish players in a run started by Harrington\u2019s claret jug win of 2007. <\/p>\n What made that Sunday at Augusta so special was that McIlroy\u2019s playoff win over Justin Rose, with a birdie at the first hole of sudden death, completed his career Grand Slam to join the legends of Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in that elite club, as five became six.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, there were points in my career where I didn\u2019t know if I would have this nice garment over my shoulders, but I didn\u2019t make it easy today. I certainly didn\u2019t make it easy. I was nervous. It was one of the toughest days I\u2019ve ever had on the golf course,\u201d said McIlroy. \u2013 Philip Reid<\/b><\/p>\n There\u2019s nothing in sport like the end of a famine. This is especially true in the GAA<\/a> where you can, in the space of 70 minutes, completely change the way a whole county sees itself. The way it has seen itself for decades. <\/p>\n Louth<\/a> hadn\u2019t won a Leinster title since De Valera was taoiseach. Think of all the generations of Louth people, dead and alive, who only ever imagined provincial titles as the kind of thing that happened elsewhere. Of the kids who grew to be adults and the adults who grew to be grandparents and how none of them ever knew how a day like this could feel.<\/p>\n Add in the fact that Dublin\u2019s hold on the Leinster Championship had become the one immutable law of Irish sport. Imagine back in January you had to say what was most likely to happen in 2025 \u2013 an Irish winner of the Masters, Ireland beating Portugal and Hungary in the space of four days, an Irish heptathlon medal at the world championships or Dublin losing their Leinster crown? You would have ranked the Dubs fourth on that list 100 times out of 100.<\/p>\n But once Meath beat the Dubs in Portlaoise, all doors were suddenly open. Louth overcame Kildare on the other side and the scene was set for a Leinster final that was going to tell an epic tale, regardless of the outcome. <\/p>\n Meath were the better team in the first half but Louth stayed in touch by raining goals. Sam Mulroy missed his first four shots at the start of the second half and then didn\u2019t miss again, putting in one of the most virtuoso half-hours of the whole championship. Meath scored just once in the closing 25 minutes but that one score was a goal that sent Croke Park into paroxysms. <\/p>\n In the end though, Louth were the ones left standing. Cue the red smoke swirling down from the Hill and nearly three-quarters of a century\u2019s ghosts laid to rest. \u2013 Malachy Clerkin<\/b><\/p>\n World Athletics Championships, Tokyo, September 20th<\/b><\/p>\n News had spread fast by the time Kate O\u2019Connor<\/a> stepped back into the arena for her final event in the heptathlon. Two laps of Japan\u2019s National Stadium stood between her and the World Championships medal podium, and another multi-event first for an Irish athlete.<\/p>\n Two laps of the track that O\u2019Connor could run around in her sleep. But then we heard that after six events already, her medal chances were possibly hanging by a loose ligament. Or worse still, a strained tendon that could snap at any moment.<\/p>\n Maybe O\u2019Connor had asked a little too much of herself. All season she\u2019d been raising the bar, starting with the five-event indoor pentathlon back in March when, just 12 days apart, she won bronze in the European Indoor Championships and then upgraded to silver on the World Indoor stage.<\/p>\n The 24-year-old then won gold in the seven-event heptathlon at the World University Games, completing her perfect set of medals.<\/p>\n The first two hot days and nights in Tokyo had gone beyond expectations. After setting personal bests in 100m hurdles, high jump, 200m and javelin, O\u2019Connor appeared safe in second, with only the 800m to come. The problem was she\u2019d twisted her right knee in the long jump, and suddenly it might all amount to nothing.<\/p>\n With her right knee taped up in blue, O\u2019Connor appeared calm, glancing one last time at her father and coach Michael<\/a>, sitting in the lower stand just beyond the finish line.<\/p>\n But there was no stopping her: O\u2019Connor ran another personal best of 2:09.56 to win silver and complete another Irish heptathlon record of 6,714 points \u2013 becoming just the sixth Irish athlete to win a World Championship medal outdoors.<\/p>\n \u201cI was never going to just settle for a bronze medal either,\u201d she said. \u201cI was always going to fight 100 per cent to the line, sore knee or not.\u201d \u2013 Ian O\u2019Riordan<\/b><\/p>\n Once every four years the British and Irish Lions<\/a> embark on a tour to one of the southern hemisphere\u2019s big three, and hence once every dozen years South Africa, New Zealand or Australia are the hosts. And once in a blue moon the Test series and the tour is distilled into one iconic moment.<\/p>\n Think Jeremy Guscott\u2019s drop goal in 1997 or Justin Harrison\u2019s lineout steal in 2009 or, sadly, speargate. To the list can now be added Hugo Keenan<\/a> at the Melbourne Cricket Ground<\/a> in 2025.<\/p>\n Given how well the Lions had played in the first 45 minutes in Lang Park a week previously, few pundits gave the Wallabies a chance of taking the Test series to a decider when they met at the MCG.<\/p>\n But in front of an enthralled 90,307 crowd, the biggest ever for a Lions Test, the Wallabies roared into a 23-5 lead. Tries by Tom Curry and Huw Jones cut that deficit by half-time and a Tadhg Beirne score, converted by Finn Russell, brought the Lions\u2019 back to 26-24 down on the hour. <\/p>\n Maro Itoje was inspired, winning vital turnovers, as the Lions patiently built waves of attacks that the Wallabies kept repelling. But then came one last red wave. <\/p>\n Just when it seemed Russell had been isolated, James Ryan showed up for a vital carry. From the recycle Jamison Gibson-Park hit Keenan. Time seemed to stand still but as Jack Conan held his width and occupied Max Jorgensen, Keenan did a mini goose-step and took Len Ikitau on his outside to score. <\/p>\n Keenan had to re-enact his finish for the players when they congregated on the centre of the pitch afterwards. He\u2019ll be dining out on it for ever. And to think that some pundits had been suggesting the Lions should never tour Australia again. \u2013 Gerry Thornley<\/b><\/p>\n There had been suggestions that Limerick<\/a> might have been guilty of complacency by so readily agreeing to travel to Croke Park to play on the same double bill as the Dublin<\/a>-Cork football match.<\/p>\n For most, there was little jeopardy in the arrangement, one that allowed John Kiely\u2019s men a run-out at headquarters that would be useful in advance of the semi-final against Tipperary.<\/p>\n After all, of their seven previous All-Ireland quarter-finals, Dublin had lost six.<\/p>\n Paradoxically, things started to go wrong for Limerick when Dublin\u2019s Chris Crummey was red-carded in the 16th minute. An in-form hurler with the physique to take on Limerick, he was about the last one they might have chosen to lose.<\/p>\n Yet Dublin raised their game to compensate \u2013 a brave response but surely futile in the face of the modern game\u2019s orthodoxy that no team could survive the loss of a player for more than about five minutes. Earlier in the championship, in Ennis, Cork couldn\u2019t protect a nine-point lead after Shane Barrett was sent off in the 57th minute.<\/p>\n But Dublin did more than survive. Half-time replacement John Hetherton rampaged up front, muscling in for a cracking finish just after Limerick had taken the lead in the 51st minute. Within 34 seconds, the same player occupied three defenders as Cian O\u2019Sullivan thundered through for a second goal.<\/p>\n Limerick, seemingly perennial champions, had no telling response. Se\u00e1n Brennan in the Dublin goal spectacularly saved from Aaron Gillane in the 60th minute and the early football arrivals brought voluble support. The underdogs believed.<\/p>\n It didn\u2019t last until the next match. Cork firmly contextualised the shock victory by putting seven goals into the Dublin net.<\/p>\n It left Limerick all the more incredulous, as they surveyed the wreckage of a season in which wreckage they lost the Munster title lost on penalties and became the fall guys in one of the game\u2019s least explicable upsets. \u2013 Se\u00e1n Moran<\/b><\/p>\n The instructions were quite clear on the choosing of the most memorable sporting moment from 2025: \u201cTROY PARROTT IS TAKEN!\u201d. He had, no doubt, won an overall majority, too, so for fear of a lack of variety, the powers-that-be suggested we cast our nets further. <\/p>\n They didn\u2019t have to go too far, though, because Abbie Larkin had produced a moment for the women\u2019s national team<\/a> just three weeks previously that was greeted with much the same frenzied celebrations among her team-mates as the ones Parrott would kick-start in Budapest. <\/p>\n It\u2019s been a bumpy old trip for this Irish team since the highs of their qualification for the 2023 World Cup. Vera Pauw, Eileen Gleeson, Carla Ward \u2013 three managers in less than 18 months. And a whole heap of off-the-field problems too. Not least the controversy surrounding the manner in which the FAI handled Colin Healy\u2019s departure, and Gleeson taking a discrimination case against the association. <\/p>\n On the field, the results under Ward were fine, apart from that calamitous 4-0 defeat away to Slovenia, but the performances were underwhelming. So, confidence wasn\u2019t exactly roof-high when they took on the higher-ranked Belgium over two legs in their Nations League play-off. <\/p>\n Katie McCabe was exceptional in both legs, scoring twice in the first, winning her 100th cap in the second. But it was all heading for extra-time in Leuven with the sides 4-4 on aggregate when Larkin produced a dollop of magic. <\/p>\n With 90 minutes on the clock, she spun past her marker after the ball fell to her in the box, and then dinked it over the Belgian goalkeeper<\/a>. Cue mayhem. <\/p>\n It was this team\u2019s finest moment since that Amber Barrett goal in Glasgow, a whole three years before, qualified them for the World Cup. It earned them promotion to the A division of the Nations League and a guaranteed play-off for the 2027 World Cup. \u2013 Mary Hannigan<\/b><\/p>\n Aintree Grand National, April 5th\/Breeders Cup, October 31st <\/b><\/p>\n Having long since redefined the parameters of success in National Hunt racing, in 2025 Willie Mullins<\/a> managed not just one defining moment in his 37-year training career, but two. <\/p>\n Victory for his son Patrick on board Nick Rockett in April\u2019s Aintree Grand National reduced the normally unflappable Mullins to tears. <\/p>\n Nick Rockett led home a Mullins 1-2-3 in the world\u2019s most famous steeplechase that propelled the Irishman to successfully defend his British trainers\u2019 title later that month. Wider ramifications were lost, though, in a deluge of family emotion. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is the summit for me, I don\u2019t think it can get any better than this. It\u2019s just huge. It\u2019s like something out of a Disney film,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if I gave him a cheer, I was just speechless. I just broke down completely. I did for about 20 minutes after. I just couldn\u2019t help it, I just completely lost it,\u201d Mullins added.<\/p>\n About seven months later, and 9,600km away in California, the emotion was of happy amazement as Ethical Diamond, Mullins\u2019s first runner at the Breeders Cup, stunned flat racing\u2019s global elite with the unlikeliest of victories in the $5 million Turf.<\/p>\n The 28\/1 outsider, who\u2019d previously won a single race in seven starts over hurdles, and had competed in handicaps on the flat, swept past some of the world\u2019s best to win in style under jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle. <\/p>\n His trainer had freely admitted he thought fifth would be the best his horse could hope for. Mullins even feared Ethical Diamond might be tailed off and make \u201ca holy show\u201d of everyone. Little wonder his immediate reaction appeared to be an entirely understandable \u201cwhat the f**k!\u201d.<\/p>\n It was a sentiment probably shared by flat racing\u2019s aristocracy, who\u2019re entitled to feel grateful that jump racing continues to be the focus of Mullins\u2019s attention. \u2013 Brian O\u2019Connor<\/b><\/p>\n The Masters, April 13th<\/b><\/p>\n I felt like the nation literally held its breath for four days. After more than a decade of near-misses, Sunday scars and the constant, nagging question that followed him everywhere he went \u2013 \u201cwill he ever?\u201d \u2013 at Augusta National, on golf\u2019s biggest stage, McIlroy finally answered it. <\/p>\n By slipping into the green jacket and claiming that elusive fifth major, he completed the career Grand Slam and closed a chapter that had long defined him as much by heartbreak as brilliance.<\/p>\n It would take something very special to keep me up past bedtime on a school night, never mind getting white-wine drunk and emotional in the name of golf on a Sunday, but Rory\u2019s Masters exploits were exactly that. <\/p>\n It felt like history unfolding in real time and it felt like the whole country was brought along for the ride. Every shot felt weighted with the disappointments of the past: the collapses, the close calls, the years where Augusta just thought it would be funny to taunt him, and us. And yet, he stayed. He fought. He endured.<\/p>\n What made it even more compelling was the backdrop. A year of intense scrutiny around his personal life only added to the drama. To summon that level of focus, and then to push it to a play-off hole for good measure, felt almost cruel; until it became historic, poetic even.<\/p>\n There are parallels with Troy\u2019s hat-trick, two moments that reminded us why we love sport. Stories of redemption, resilience and the joy of finally seeing someone get what they never stopped chasing. \u2013 Karen Duggan<\/b><\/p>\n Dublin Marathon, October 26th<\/b><\/p>\n Somewhere between Bethpage and Budapest, the streets of Dublin provided the stage for one of the most unexpected<\/a> Irish breakthrough stories of the year.<\/p>\n At 19 years young, in late October Ava Crean smashed her personal best by more than nine minutes to become the youngest ever winner of the women\u2019s national title at the Dublin Marathon<\/a>. <\/p>\n![\"Rory](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/JT2SZODP3FDSVGA663JK5IRJ6U.jpg\")
Rory McIlroy reacts to holing the putt that made him just one of six men to have completed golf’s Grand Slam. Photograph: Richard Heathcote\/Getty Images Rory McIlroy masters his destiny<\/b> <\/b><\/p>\nLouth fans partying in Croke Park in May like it was 1957. Photograph: Tom Maher\/Inpho Louth feast on Leinster title after 68 years of famine<\/b>Leinster SFC final, May 11th<\/b><\/p>\n
![\"Kate](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4VO4HKT57LMDICTT6CLE7CHICQ.jpg\")
Kate O’Connor after jumping a new lifetime best height on the way to a historic silver medal at the World Athletics Championships. Photograph: Morgan Treacy\/Inpho Kate O\u2019Connor\u2019s silver success <\/b><\/p>\n![\"Hugo](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/E6UF7J4T5NE3PISBOEYDFBZFC4.jpg\")
Hugo Keenan celebrates crossing the Australian line to score a try and write himself into British and Irish Lions history. Photograph: Dan Sheridan\/Inpho Hugo Keenan\u2019s instantly iconic try<\/b>Australia 26 British & Irish Lions 29, Second Test, July 26th<\/b><\/p>\n![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/YEFMZ75S6RA3HF3OU3654I46KQ.jpg\")
John Hetherton scores one of the goals that helped Dublin topple Limerick in June. Photograph: James Crombie\/Inpho Dublin defy the odds to shock Limerick <\/b> <\/b>All-Ireland SHC quarter-final: Dublin 2-24, Limerick 0-28, June 21st<\/b><\/p>\n![\"Abbie](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DR55AEUILD24R5BTVKPGZLLIGY.jpg\")
Abbie Larkin keeps her cool to dink the ball over the goalkeeper for a decisive goal for Ireland against Belgium. Photograph: Ryan Byrne\/Inpho Abbie Larkin\u2019s magical finish Belgium 2 Rep of Ireland 1, October 28th<\/p>\n![\"Jockey](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/RPLPN5EXNLA5AXVUOZN7FDP5MA.jpg\")
Jockey Patrick Mullins with his father and winning trainer Willie Mullins after winning the Grand National at Aintree in April. Photograph: David Davies for The Jockey Club\/PA Wire Willie Mullins\u2019s Disney endings<\/b><\/p>\n![\"Rory](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/JOBMNTJSEVHOZIA6TOJ5W4NLYI.jpg\")
Rory McIlroy with caddie Harry Diamond after winning 2025 Masters at Augusta in April. Photograph: Michael Reaves\/Getty Images History and poetry with Rory McIlroy<\/b><\/p>\n![\"Ava](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GJJTEGM7UJEI3GXDKY2U23YZF4.jpg\")
Ava Crean crosses the line to to win the women’s national title at Dublin Marathon. Photograph: Bryan Keane\/Inpho Ava Crean redefines what can be done<\/b><\/p>\n
![\"Liam](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/7EZYD7Z2J2QEOLNZ4JX7FN7X2E.jpg\")
Liam Scales after Troy Parrott got on the end of his knock-down to prod Ireland to victory in Hungary. Photograph: David Balogh\/Getty Images One giant leap by Scales for Ireland <\/b><\/p>\n![\"Rory](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/3XNYYMZQIBG6NHWAAU4II2657Y.jpg\")
Rory McIlroy tees off on the first hole of the Open at Royal Portrush Golf Club in July. Photograph: Richard Heathcote\/Getty Images Rory McIlroy\u2019s settles serenely on homecoming<\/b><\/p>\n