It has been a wildly successful year for Irish sport. Across the board of Ireland’s sporting activities, medals have emerged in the swimming pool and on the hockey pitch, in the boxing ring and on the running track.
Running through the impressive gamut of 2018’s sporting successes, paralympian swimmer Ellen Keane and head coach of the Ireland Women’s Hockey Team Graham Shaw joined The Saturday Panel this afternoon to reflect on what has been an incredible year.
Guiding his team to a World Cup final against the Netherlands, Shaw had enjoyed a tremendous journey that far exceeded even his wildest dreams.
“Just qualifying for the World Cup was a big moment for our squad,” Shaw admitted.
“We’d missed out on the previous four, so actually getting to go there was a big achievement itself.”
For Keane, bronze turned to gold at the World Para Swimming European Championships. Hosted in Dublin, the Irish swimmer still finds that she must revel in her monumental success; “It’s still so soon after the championships that I’m still going around showing [the medal] off.”
Running through the challenges that continue to plague some of Ireland’s minority sports despite their worldwide success, both Shaw and Keane remain hopeful that 2018 will set a benchmark that can be readily built upon.
Joined in studio by Nathan and the Chief Sports Writer of the Irish Daily Star, Kieran Cunningham, we have a full run through of all Ireland’s sporting successes in 2018, including Kellie Harrington’s boxing triumph, Thomas Barr’s European bronze-medal and Ireland’s Grand Slam win.
By Arthur O'Dea
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