LAST UPDATE | 31 Dec 2023
David Sneyd
The players had just sprinted from their pre-match huddles as the smoke from the pyro at both ends of the ground began to fill Aviva Stadium before the FAI Cup final started in November.
My brother-in-law threw his seven-year-old son onto his shoulders as if it might help him peer above it. Alex looked up in a state of wonder.
The stadium was practically full. A record attendance of 43,881 there to see St Patrick’s Athletic beat Bohemians 3-1.
As my nephew looked around, I grabbed a quick snap to be used it as part of this article - reviewing a special day.
The one I didn’t use came seconds later, when he looked down at me, clenched his fist, gritted his slowly descending adult teeth and roared ‘C’MON PATS!’
He was only slightly younger than the gaggle of teenagers and early twenty-somethings that helped Pat’s triumph.
The record attendance didn’t feel like the culmination of the work happening in the League of Ireland, merely a memorable moment amid the ongoing process.
Something organic and – hopefully – sustainable is happening and youth is the driving force.
Emma Duffy
It has to be watching the Ireland WNT at their first-ever major tournament in the World Cup. I have been so fortunate to cover the team over the past few years and Australia was the experience of a lifetime. Seeing them walk out in front of over 75,000 fans at Sydney’s Stadium Australia against the co-hosts was special, as were the spine-tingling renditions of Amhrán a bhFiann on the world stage for the very first time.
It only happens once. But Katie McCabe’s Olimpico was by far my favourite sporting moment of 2023. The quality of the delivery in the lashing rain in Perth, the reaction, the celebration. Unbelievable.
Gavin Cooney
The year’s most significant sporting moment was Rory McIlroy’s glum press conference before this year’s Canadian Open. McIlroy faced the cameras a day after the PGA Tour dropped the year’s biggest sporting bombshell: a stunning merger agreement with Saud Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and LIV golf, with detente talks conducted in total secrecy while everyone else – including McIlroy – believed they were at war.
As the PGA Tour’s loudest and most righteous critic of LIV, McIlroy admitted he felt like a “sacrificial lamb”, before pithily summing up modern-day professional sport. “Whether you like it or not”, he said, “PIF and the Saudis want to spend money in the game of golf. They want to do this and they weren’t going to stop.”
McIlroy’s latter line is part epigram and part epitaph for professional sport. They want to do this and they weren’t going to stop.
The merger agreement betrayed LIV for what it always was: a ludicrous method of siege on the PGA Tour, draining them of talent and eyeballs to a point when they came to the table. Ultimately, there was no resisting the awesome gravity of the Saudis money, and this entire story is a lesson that, if an oil-rich nation state wants to find political influence and favourable PR through sport, they have the money to get whatever they want.
This was the year of the Saudi Pro League and effective confirmation that Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup; the Kingdom has interests too in F1, tennis, boxing, cricket and esports. They are gobbling up all of sport, and they can do so because professional sport has decided it is for sale at the right price. Anyone claiming to disagree should read this month’s European Court of Justice ruling on the Super League: they say the organisation of competitions and the sale of these media rights is “evidently an economic activity.” Sport was once above mere businesses, but too many of its lame governing bodies took this protected status and sold it off.
The genie is out of the bottle now, and it’s not going back. As Rory tells us: they want to do this and they are not going to stop.
Sinead Farrell
The 2023 sporting showreel is well stacked, making it difficult to pick just one standout moment. Watching Ireland capture another Six Nations Grand Slam title was a major highlight. The Republic of Ireland women’s team made history too with their World Cup appearance, their first time in a major tournament. Rhasidat Adeleke and Ciara Mageean inspired once again with their feats on the track, while Rhys McClenaghan and the rowing duo of Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy struck gold again.
There’s plenty of other events that deserve a mention, but for me, the reel stops at Katie Taylor’s display of defiance in her rematch with Chantelle Cameron. To face down all the doubts about her future in boxing, and come out as a two-weight undisputed champion after a colossal battle with Cameron at the 3Arena reinforces the truth that she is one of Ireland’s greatest ever athletes.
Declan Bogue
It’s not to everyone’s taste, but the manner in how the Ulster final was concluded this year will live long in the memory. The football was what we might expect, with plenty of incredible drama and it ended up with that shootout between Derry and Armagh.
Odhran Lynch wrote his name into history with three saves, before the winning penalty was scored by Ciaran McFaul. It’s a peculiar world sometimes.
Murray Kinsella
There were too many amazing moments in Paris on the weekend of 14 and 15 October to pick out just one. Obviously, it was a weekend of dejection for Ireland but the two Rugby World Cup quarter-finals at Stade de France were sensational. They were the two best games of the entire tournament, with New Zealand and South Africa advancing at the expense of Ireland and France.
The level of rugby was truly special. The drama and tension were at unparalleled highs. The atmosphere in the stadium in Paris for both games was spine-tingling. No one deserved to come out of those two ties as losers but that’s not to say the Kiwis and Springboks didn’t deserve their wins. It was simply one of the greatest weekends of rugby ever and will live forever in the memory.
Fintan O’Toole
Two to consider from Cheltenham in March and Croke Park in July. The first saw Honeysuckle land the Mares’ Hurdle on the opening day of the festival, closing the book on a stunning racing career. The partnership of Henry de Bromhead and Rachael Blackmore combined again for success with the dual Champion Hurdle winner, but it was a day notably drenched with emotion as tributes were paid to de Bromhead’s son Jack, who had died following a pony racing accident the previous summer.
The second came deep in injury-time in the All-Ireland hurling semi-final, a pulsating game marked by Clare’s thrilling comeback, yet a revival that was halted by an extraordinary intervention by Kilkenny goalkeeper Eoin Murphy. Peter Duggan’s volleyed strike was wonderfully improvised, the skill of the execution matched by Murphy’s reaction to spring into the air, his hurley outstretched as he tipped the shot onto the bar.
Ronan Early
It is not original to say Shane Lowry is a frustrated GAA player forced to settle for the life of a major-winning golf professional. The extent to which the throw-away line might be true revealed itself at the Ryder Cup. From vigorous fist pumping to bundling Rory McIlroy a car park to avoid a carpark rumble, Lowry led the on-course and off course vibes in Rome.
Yet the moment his love of the collective came truly to the fore was during the press conference afterwards.
“I think one of the biggest accomplishments in golf right now is winning an away Ryder Cup – and that’s what we’re going to do at Bethpage,’’ said McIlroy.
“. . . Aw, gone on Rory,” came the reply from Lowry down the table. He then gave it a good whack for further appreciation.
This was classic we’ve-won-the-county-and-next-is-the-province talk. No better team player than Lowry to revel in the sentiment. It gave me a smile, anyway, and nudged David’s Clifford’s no-look overhead pass against Tyrone and Sean Dyche giving his new Everton players a bleep test into second and third spots.
