New York native Deirdre Murphy is the first woman cyclist ever to qualify Ireland for the Olympics. She talks to Sarah Curran about Ireland, her Olympic dream, and her strategy for Sydney. ℘℘℘ Deirdre Murphy arrives at the café where we had arranged to hold an interview in the most appropriate way – on a bicycle. She hops off her bike and proceeds to pull from her bag … [Read more...] about Hibernia: Going for the Gold
Sports Archives
Pat Riley
The Coach
When Pat Riley coached the New York Knicks basketball team, journalist Pete Hamill listed him in a Thanksgiving column as "one of the things New Yorkers should be grateful for." Riley now coaches the Miami Heat and is a motivational speaker. He is the author of The Winner Within.
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When I was about nine years old, my father told my brothers to take me down to Lincoln … [Read more...] about Pat RileyThe Coach
The Player
Mark O'Meara, golf's mister nice guy, is interviewed by John Kernaghan. Some men are defined by how they win, some by their bearing in defeat. For Mark O'Meara, golf's great grandson of Ireland, his composure on a day of personal loss but team triumph fleshes out a portrait of classical sportsman. The scene at the 17th green on the last day of the Ryder Cup competition at … [Read more...] about The Player
An American Champion
By Mary Pat Kelly
July/August 1996
John Brendan Kelly, father of Princess Grace of Monaco, won two Olympic Gold medals in 1920 and one in 1924, competing in a sport which was the reserve of gentlemen, the single and double sculls. He remains the only American ever to win the Gold in single sculls. Kelly came from a family of achievers, whose story is embedded in Irish America. His daughter, Grace Kelly, became … [Read more...] about An American Champion
One Hundred Years of Irish Olympians: Days of Glory
By Colin Lacey and Kevin O'Neill Shanley
July/August 1996
As the 1996 Olympic Games begin in Atlanta, Georgia, we look at some of the Irish Olympians since the first modern Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, one hundred years ago. 1896, Athens, Greece James Brendan Connolly - John Pius Boland - Thomas Burke James Brendan Connolly became the first Olympic champion of the modern era when he won the Gold for the U.S. in the … [Read more...] about One Hundred Years of Irish Olympians: Days of Glory