Rory Leads Irish Charge
Rory McIlroy’s victory at Hoylake in the Open Championship was the eighth Irish Major win in the last eight years. That’s a strike rate of 30% over the last 27 Majors, an incredible achievement for small nation. Graham McDowell and Shane Lowry both finished in the top 11 and Darren Clarke made it four in the top 30.
That speaks volumes for the structures of juvenile coaching that are clearly in place at the Golfing Union of Ireland and with Stephenie Meadows showing incredible promise in the Women’s game, finishing third at last months US Upen, the future is very bright for Irish Golf.
Dublin Maintain Surge On and Off the Field
Dublin and Meath attracted a little over 62,000 fans to Croke Park yesterday for the Leinster Football Championship Final. Dublin’s win marked a ninth Leinster title in ten years but the threat to crowd following that can sometimes be a product of such an unbroken tenure at the top has clearly yet to bite.
Sky Sports will be pleased with the result too as it means their own gamble on securing the Football Championship Quarter Final featuring the Leinster winners will now give them exclusive coverage Dublin as the Championship moves to the latter stages.
Irish Women in Edge of History
The Ireland U19 Women’s Soccer team face Sweden tonight knowing that a draw will secure them a place in the semi finals of their first ever Major Championship. Even defeat by a single goal will be enough to progress but topping the group secures a place in the one semi final that will be broadcast across the continent on Eurosport.
The team has already made history by beating Spain 1-0 and then coming from behind to defeat England on Friday night. It has been an incredible journey so far and hopefully there will be three more opportunities for the nation to get behind what could prove to be our most successful international sports team at any level.
Athletics Records
Glohealth kicked off their five year sponsorship of Irish Athletics with the first naming of the National Track and Field Championships at the Morton Stadium in Santry over the weekend. Ciaran O’Lionaird was named the athlete of the meeting after winning the Men’s 1,500 metres event and securing a place on the team competing at next month’s European Championships. The crowd at Santry was the biggest recorded at the meeting since 2008, despite the competition from an early Dublin Football fixture at Croke Park, showing the health of the sport in more ways than one.
Winners in the Ring
A raucous crowd of 9,500 at Dublin’s O2 Arena on Saturday night saw five Irish victories out of five in the first major night of UFC action to take place in Dublin. Conor McGregor led the way on a night that was televised live in TV3 and which went down well with the main figures in the Mixed Martial Arts World who were here for the occasion.
UFC Chief Executive Dana White was positive about a return to Ireland, though uncertain about where. “Yeah, definitely. The problem is the arena is so small and, like (McGregor) says, we could do a bigger arena, but I’m not too confident in your weather and an outdoor stadium. This isn’t Abu Dhabi. I love it here and the fans love it here,” he told Brendan O’Brien of the Irish Examiner after the event.
