The Irish bestsellers chart is deservedly dominated by an examination of the incredible financial shenanigans at the Football Association of IrelandDespite grabbing public interest with such force it is currently keeping even the mighty Midas that is Richard Osman off the top of the Irish bestsellers list, on the face of it there is no earthly reason why a book written on the deathly dull subject of football administration should be of particular interest to any right-thinking human being. And yet, here we are.Little more than a fortnight after its release, Champagne Football: The Rise and Fall of John Delaney and the Football Association of Ireland bestrides the literary charts, already heading for its third print run due to the...
The former Ireland Olympic swimming coach was accused of sexual offences dating back decades and a new podcast series renews hope his victims will finally see justice doneIt’s taken her decades to get here but in conversation at her home in Cork, Tric Kearney could well be discussing the gruelling training sessions she undertook as a talented child swimmer when she matter-of-factly describes the repeated rapes to which she was subjected by her coach. “Two times a day at least, maybe,” she recalls. “And it could be anything and everything. It was pretty severe.”Kearney’s is just one of several extremely harrowing testimonies given by victims of a man known to everyone over a certain age in Ireland. During the 1980s,...
Portrush has finally hosted the Open but, as Ireland make their Test bow at Lord’s, they must do so as guinea pigs – is it a snub?It’s a wonder the Irish are so well known for their hospitality when you consider the state of some of the people they have to welcome. The very same day play got under way in the 148th Open the papers here led with the Boris Johnson line, first reported in the Financial Times, about Leo Varadkar, “why isn’t he called Murphy like all the rest of them?” Add it to the list, along with Iain Duncan Smith’s blithe dismissal of “this Irish stuff”, Karen Bradley’s blunt admission of her own ignorance of the difference...