50 things that Irish sports fans have to be thankful for

We are truly blessed on this little island

1 Joe Schmidt. With or without an appendix, we probably have the best coach in world rugby. Don't tell anyone 2 The GAA. There might be lots of things wrong with this country, but the GAA is one thing we have that is (almost) perfect 3 Katie Taylor. Having the best in the world in any sport is a privilege for a place as small as this and there is no-one to touch Katie in her field right now 4 Rory McIlroy. As above, a class apart and at just 25, we have another 15 odd years of brilliance to look forward to as well 5 The Sunday Game. Sure it can annoy us on a regular basis but we’d have it over Match of the Day any day 6 The mere existence of Marty Morrissey 7 The UFC returning to Dublin, selling out in a matter of minutes 8 Roy Keane. Love him or loathe him, he’s some man 9 Jimmy Barry Murphy, an ageless wonder 10 Paul O’Connell. Seriously, how is he actually getting better? 11 Mark English, Thomas Barr, Fionnuala Britton are all on the upward curve of their careers in athletics 12 You’re never more than a few miles from a GAA pitch 13 Michel Platini and his new Euro 16 qualifiers mean we are still in with a shot of being in France 14 Aiden McGeady’s goal in Georgia. See above https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P0-l-4_LCQ 15 Stephanie Roche’s goal. As good a three seconds of Irish brilliance as you’ll ever see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpBvBRn4juw 16 Robbie Keane. Ignore the haters, we are all lucky to have been around to see Ireland’s greatest ever goalscorer. His records won’t be broken in our lifetime 17 Shane Curran 18 Conor McGregor. Fast mouth backed up with even faster hands and feet make him the most entertaining sports person we have right now, in or out of action. 19 Cathal Pendred, Aisling Daly, Paddy Holohan, Neil Seery… we could go on but Irish MMA is a whole new avenue for sports fans to feel pride in Irish excellence on the world stage 20 Shane Lowry in the world’s top 50. Great to see one of the good guys get to the top. A definite Major contender next year 21 Kerry football and Kilkenny hurling. Their uncanny ability to stay at the top is simply breathtaking, even if you want to see them beaten every time they tog out 22 Billy Walsh and Zaur Antia. What their boxers have achieved is incredible 23 Briege Corkery. 14 All Irelands across two sports and until very recently she worked as a stonemason. Only in Ireland 24 Long summer evenings and a GAA match down the local field. Doesn’t matter the code or standard 25 AP McCoy, Ruby Walsh, Katie Walsh and countless other jockeys. Brave beyond imagination 26 You’re never any more than 24 hours away from a sure-thing tip for a race 27 Being in Thomond for a big game 28 Local radio GAA commentary like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UXdEzNlsSI 29 Pictures like this 30 Mike Ross 31 The fact that our TV analysts might often be wrong, but none of them are Jamie Redknapp or Alan Shearer 32 Donal Og Cusack, for more reasons than we have space 33 Hill 16 34 The League of Ireland for nurturing so many future internationals, as well as much needed Friday night options that aren’t the pub 35 Leopardstown at Christmas 36 Easy access to Cheltenham 37 We produce Lions captains at a frankly ridiculous rate 38 The granny rule 39 Johnny Sexton's right foot 40 Rob Kearney's left foot 41 Diarmuid Connolly's right and left foot 42 We all know where Saipan is 43 Kieran Donaghy giving Joe Brolly the business https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n9GzBUNSFk 44 John O'Shea's swinging right boot that caused Manuel Neuer's net to ripple and thousands of Irish voices to go. 45 Another Ryder Cup for Europe courtesy of Paul McGinley's captaincy. 46 Bill O'Herlihy's final "We'll leave it there so." 47 The Mayo fan who left us wondering: "Is this real life?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX2lqxvO-8M 48 Cyril Farrell who keeps us watching 49 Seamie Coleman and his continued excellence 50 AIB Club Championships - The purest showing of GAA, even in the cold months.