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 football, just as she had done all his life.

One of the drugs removed the lining of his mouth and throat. He was riddled with mouth ulcers and couldn’t eat, causing his weight to plumm...

"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 highest level of protection. Nothing less than the highest level is adequate”

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, apart from his father Seán, to be Colm Cooper, Bernard Brogan, Seán Cavanagh, Michael Dara Macauley, Stephen O’Neill, Colm O’Neill or Michael Murphy.

Johnny Doyle with wife Si...

“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 do take it year by year. There’s no point saying I’m going to be there for the next 10 years. I’m not!”

Kate Kelly, 2015

AROUND Kilkenny, if the names Shefflin, Cody and Holden come in conversation, the likelihood is that hurling will be the topic, with Henry, Brian and Joey having captained the Noresiders to All-Ireland success at the highest level, Henry considered one of the best to ever play the game and Brian possibly the greatest manager of a sports team this country has seen.

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 remarkably well, showing a maturity way beyond his years and being extremely comfortable dealing with media interest.

The Killarney native has coped just as well with the setbacks that i...

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 knew if I didn’t try to come back that I would always wonder what could have happened” (Photo by Inpho)

There was a time too, when it appeared certain that the ...

IT IS another of those quintessential national hunt stories that captures the very essence of jump racing.

“Katie has done a great job with him; you have to hand it to her... She's with him every day; she knows the horse, the horse knows her and that has to be a help” (Photos: Caroline Norris)

It st...

"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 to me in a car crash” (Photos are stills...

“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 rolling around upstairs, they’ll let me out.”

“Tell you where I’d go. Zihuatanejo.”

“Ze-what?”

“Zihuatanejo. It’s in Mexico. A little place on the Pacific Ocean. You know what the Mexic...