By Sean Creedon
No doubt about the sporting highlight of 2001. Any year that your country qualifies for the soccer World Cup finals cannot be a bad one. Even if the Republic don’t win a game in Japan, there’s a huge buzz connected with the finals and, hopefully, Ireland’s participation will give the whole country a major boost.
Qualification came the hard way, via a two-leg playoff with Iran. But it was that memorable 1-0 victory over Holland at Lansdowne Road in September that really set us up for the runners-up spot. Then in the playoff goalkeeper Shay Given kept Ireland’s our hopes alive with some brilliant saves.
What is it with Donegal and goalkeepers? When Ireland were in the World Cup finals in 1990 and ’94, Donegalman Packie Bonner was in goal. Now another man from the Northwest is in goal for Ireland.
In domestic soccer, Bohemians won the League-Cup double for the first time since 1928, but a few weeks after beating Longford Town in the FAI Cup final, they parted company with manager Roddy Collins.
Collins is a flamboyant character, but Bohs didn’t really appreciate his worth and only realized what they had lost when his deputy, Pete Mahon, quit in December, with the club slipping toward the relegation spot.
Never miss an issue of The Irish Echo
Subscribe to one of our great value packages.
In Gaelic Games, the big shock was Kerry’s second-half collapse against Meath in the All-Ireland football semifinal. Cynics claim that there was discontent in the Kerry camp. Changing your captain the day before a big game gave the rumormongers a field day, but, in reality, Kerry were simply blown away. Amazingly, much the same thing happened to Meath in the final against Galway.
The losers’ round in football gave the All-Ireland football championship a great fillip, with counties like Westmeath and Dublin bringing great excitement to the championship. And, of course, Galway, who were beaten by Roscommon in the Connacht championship, went to become the first county to win the All-Ireland after having earlier been beaten.
Forwards always grab the glory and we remember some great scores by players like Johnny Crowley, Maurice Fitzgerald, Ollie Murphy and Padraig Joyce.
Hurling was often neglected, but next year the hurling back door will be fully open. So even if All-Ireland champions Tipperary go out in the first round in Munster next year, they will get another chance.
Galway as usual were the surpirse packets. They dethroned reigning champions Kilkenny in August but couldn’t produce the same level of performance a few weeks later against Tipp.
Earlier, Limerick, who knocked out Cork in the first round of the Munster championship, had a good run, before eventually going out to Wexford at the quarterfinal stage.
Mick McCarthy is a national hero for his success with the soccer team, but Warren Gatland was sacked, despite some good results with the Irish rugby team. Gatland is probably cursing the foot-and-mouth outbreak in England, which disrupted his team’s good run.
After Ireland beat Italy and France in February, the outbreak caused the Six Nations Championship to be postponed until the autumn. When it resumed in September, the Irish were hammered by Scotland at Murrayfield. They bounced back with wins over Wales in Cardiff and England in Dublin. But after three years and 38 games with Gatland in charge, the IRFU sub-committee decided that it was time to replace the New Zelander, who has been living in Galway since 1996, with Eddie O’Sullivan.
Farther afield, Irelanbd had six players on the British and Irish Lions tour to Australia.
In horse racing, a sport in which Ireland can always compete with the best, the outbreak of foot-and-mouth in Britain meant that Cheltenham was cancelled. Istabraq and Florida Pearl had shown good potential prior to the threat of FMD.
On the flat it was another great year for trainer Aidan O’Brien, jockey Mick Kinane and Galileo. The trio won the English Derby, Budweiser Irish Derby and the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot before being beaten by Fantastic Light at Leoparstown in September.
In Golf, Padraig Harrington always seemed to be the bridesmaid, but he eventually did win a tournament, the Volvo Masters in Spain.
At home, Darren Clarke won the Smurfit European Cup at the K Club. Bray caddie Myles Byrne packed a club too many for Ian
Woosnam on the final day of the British Open. The error cost the Welsham two strokes. Woosnam forgave Myles, but two weeks later he sacked the Irishman when he failed to show up on time for the start of another tournament.
The Irish International Rules team traveled to Australia and beat the Aussies in a game that is not played regularly anywhere in the world — Compromise Rules — a mixture of Gaelic Football and Aussie Rules.
At home, the GAA finally extended the hand of friendship across the border to the security forces when they voted at a special Congress to drop Rule 21. A motion to delete Rule 42, which forbids Croke Park to be used for soccer or rugby was defeated at Congress, but only barely and it could go next year.
In August, Gearoid Towey and Tony O’Connor made history by winning Ireland’s first-ever rowing gold in the coxless pairs final in Lucerne.
Ireland lost some sporting greats in 2001. The saddest was probably the death of former Cork goalkeeper John Kerins, 38, to cancer. Bertie Fisher, one of Ireland’s best-known racing drivers, was killed in a helicopter crash near Enniskillen. And Brendan O’Reilly, who was well known as a high jumper and later as a TV
anchor man, died in April.