Greatest Irish Sportsperson

[Hardy]

Vincent O'Brien. Won all the "majors" in his sport multiple times and (I think still) more often than anyone else IN THE WORLD. Dominated in one code of his sport, then switched to the other and dominated that for decades. Was incontrovertibly the best in the world at what he did for all the years he did it and arguably hasn't been surpassed since.

[bridgegael]

tiger wasn't there  for any of jack nicklaus major wins should there be question marks over them to?

Thats a silly comment. Tiger Woods is curently the worlds no. 1 golfer and harrington won 2 of his majors when woods was out injured. Thats the only point stephenite is making. And Tiger wasnt no. 1 when nicklaus won his majors so of course there are no question marks over those wins.

If nadal won wimbledon this year & federer was out injured, i think there'd be similar question marks over the win.

for the record i think harrington's performances in the last 2 majors have been nothing less that magnificent and i actually doubt that tiger would have beaten him. And for me, harrington is definitely up there as Ireland's Greatest Sportsman - certainly hard to find any better.

obviously it was a silly comment,  you can only beat who is put in front of you.  Woods wasn't there for the last two majors and imo i don't think it would have mattered if he had have been.  its not as if he wins every major every year.

[Bogball XV]

Imo, it's too early to assess PH as Ireland's greatest sportsman, if for no other reason than that he almost certainly has more to come. Up until his first Open, I thought him a bit of a choker, tbh, since he had so many second places. And even in that tournament, he seemed to rely on Garcia choking even worse, in order to win.
But it's obvious the boost that first Major gave him has lifted PH up onto a new level.

Whilst it's true that his first major lifted him onto a new level, I always thought it unfair to label him a choker because of his amount of 2nd places - from memory most of them actually showed his strength of character as they showed how he kept on plugging away whilst others dropped away, rarely from memory did he throw away a winning position.

[Real1995]

Would rate last night at def in the top 5 of all time Ireland greatest sporting achievements.  the tension was unreal - the man is soo cool under pressure.  Congratulations padraig you are a true irish legend.....bring on the masters 2009 

[Square Ball]

this is hard to believe, but this is the first time i realised that he had won the thing. It wasnt mentioned on the BBC or radio news this morning due to the Brits winning a gold in the swimming, i listened to a bit last night on radio 5 and he was 3 behind and then went to bed.

[Canalman]

Pat O'Callaghan, two time Olympic medallist has to be in with a shout.

For me it has to be Ronnie Delaney, a champion in a trully global sport . Golf for all its popularity is not played by the masses in most of the world. Also as a boost to the nation's psyche in the 50s, RD's achievemient imo is not surpassed.

[stephenite]

5 time Olympic Gold Medallist and Mayo man Martin Sheridan.

[Tankie]

Pat O'Callaghan, two time Olympic medallist has to be in with a shout.

For me it has to be Ronnie Delaney, a champion in a trully global sport . Golf for all its popularity is not played by the masses in most of the world. Also as a boost to the nation's psyche in the 50s, RD's achievemient imo is not surpassed.

Running? its global in the sence that everybody runs for fitness and the old marathon but I wouldnt have considered the sport of running all that popular!

[upthehoops]

I cannot understand why some are so begrudging towards Harrington's achievements. I am not saying that he is the best ever, but his record is superb, but this country has produced so many sporting icons and it is hard to quantify  what it is that makes any one the best as it is so subjective.

[Tankie]

I cannot understand why some are so begrudging towards Harrington's achievements. I am not saying that he is the best ever, but his record is superb, but this country has produced so many sporting icons and it is hard to quantify  what it is that makes any one the best as it is so subjective.

results at the highest stage is generally how someone is judged!

[Tony Baloney]

but this country has produced so many sporting icons and it is hard to quantify  what it is that makes any one the best as it is so subjective.

If we are talking about the best in the world then surely gaelic games have to be removed from the equation. How can anyone compare GAA greats like Christy Ring, Pat Spillane or Terence McNaughton with people like Harrington etc. who have contested on a world scale against the best the world has to offer.

[gallsman]

but this country has produced so many sporting icons and it is hard to quantify  what it is that makes any one the best as it is so subjective.

If we are talking about the best in the world then surely gaelic games have to be removed from the equation. How can anyone compare GAA greats like Christy Ring, Pat Spillane or Terence McNaughton with people like Harrington etc. who have contested on a world scale against the best the world has to offer.

It's not about where people you compete against are from, but how highly rgarded they are within their own sport. Football and hurling are largely native, so people like Henry Shefflin certainly deserve to be considered for accolades such as this as they prove themselves time and time again against the games' top players. The fact that the other top players are all Irish is irrelevant.

Hence why I have no respect for Kiernan after his rant over Shefflin winning the RTE award ahead of Derval O'Rourke.

[Rav67]

tiger wasn't there  for any of jack nicklaus major wins should there be question marks over them to?

Thats a silly comment. Tiger Woods is curently the worlds no. 1 golfer and harrington won 2 of his majors when woods was out injured. Thats the only point stephenite is making. And Tiger wasnt no. 1 when nicklaus won his majors so of course there are no question marks over those wins.

If nadal won wimbledon this year & federer was out injured, i think there'd be similar question marks over the win.

for the record i think harrington's performances in the last 2 majors have been nothing less that magnificent and i actually doubt that tiger would have beaten him. And for me, harrington is definitely up there as Ireland's Greatest Sportsman - certainly hard to find any better.

Golf and tennis are very different animals.  At the minute it would be a major shock if one of the top 2 didn't win a tennis major, and even then it would be practically unbelievable if Djokovic wasn't the man who managed to beat them.  The same can't be said for golf, which is much more difficult to dominate in.

Mary Peters and Ronnie Delaney are definitely strong candidates given the lack of importance attached to athletics in Ireland, north and south, compared to other counties where track and field facilties would have been infinitely superior.  McCoy has dominated his sport for over a decade and has won everything bar the British Grand National but national hunt racing is really only popular in Ireland and to a lesser extent England where it on the same par with flat racing, so I wouldn't say he is the greatest.  Michelle Smith was a drug cheat so she can't be considered.

Due to soccer being the most global sport, I would probably say Best or Keane as they were both at the very top of the sport for a time and both won the world's top club prize, both being integral parts of the success.

[IolarCoisCuain]

talking about the best in the world then surely gaelic games have to be removed from the equation. How can anyone compare GAA greats like Christy Ring, Pat Spillane or Terence McNaughton with people like Harrington etc. who have contested on a world scale against the best the world has to offer.

That's a very interesting attitude for a member of a GAA discussion board to have Mr Baloney. 

[Keepthefaith93]

Harrington is Irelands greatest ever sportsman by a mile. I'm surprised all the man u nerds haven't been slabbering on about Keane.