THE 50 THAT DIDN’T MAKE IT
Quare Times wins third successive Grand National, and third different horse too, for Vincent O’Brien in 1955. No one has even had two back-to-back wins since.
Connacht defy IRFU nay-sayers and years in the doldrums by winning the 2016 Pro12 league final against Leinster in Edinburgh.
Then still an amateur, Shane Lowry wins the 2009 Irish Open at Baltray.
Dundalk become first LOI club to win a match in the group stages of the Europa League in 2016.
Johnny Flaherty’s palmed winning goal against Galway in the 1981 All-Ireland SHC final seals Offaly’s breakthrough.
Bobbyjo wins the 1999 Grand National for Tommy and Paul Carberry, a first Irish win since ’75 when Tommy rode L’Escargot
Referee Martin Sludden’s blunder costs Louth a first Leinster SFC title in over 50 years, inciting such outrage that it ended up in the courts in 2010.
Motor sport star Paddy Hopkirk wins the celebrated Monte Carlo rally in a Mini Cooper in 1964.
Pádraig Harrington and Paul McGinley win 1997 World Cup of Golf in Kiawah Island.
Irish-trained and ridden Sea The Stars wins 2009 Arc to complete six successive Grade One triumphs in six months.
In response to the disbandment of the RUC and in keeping with the spirt of the peace process in 2001, the GAA abolishes Rule 21 which had prevented members of the British army from joining.
The late 1970s and early ’80s battle for the No 10 jersey between Ollie Campbell and Tony Ward becomes the greatest individual contest in Irish rugby history.
Mouse Morris achieves a rare Irish/Aintree National double in 2016 with Rogue Angel and Rule The World.
Eoin Hand accuses Portuguese referee Raul Nazare of cheating Ireland out of a place in World Cup finals against Belgium in 1981.
At Hoylake in 1947, Fred Daly wins the Open golf championship, it would be 60 years before another Irishman won the prize.
Ireland’s amateur cricketers stun the West Indies by bowling them out for a pitiful 25 in 1969.
Shane Long’s strike fires Ireland towards Euro finals with a 1-0 win over Germany in Dublin.
FAI officers stare down Jack Charlton and force him to resign as Ireland manager in 1995.
Darren Clarke wins 2011 Open at Royal St George’s.
FAI turns down invite to World Cup finals as they feared losing money in 1950, yet all 13 competing teams had every expense covered.
Philip Walton beats Jay Haas to win 1995 Ryder Cup in Oak Hill.
AP McCoy finally nails the Grand National in 2010 on Don’t Push It.
Pádraig Harrington wins 2008 Open − his second − at Royal Birkdale.
Christy O’Connor Jnr wins 1975 Irish Open at Woodbrook.
Christy O’Connor Snr wins the 1970 John Player Classic in Nottingham – the richest prize in European golf at the time.
Defeat has been a familiar presence at Irish Olympic efforts, but rarely has it been handled with the dignity displayed by Kenny Egan in 2008 when he lost to home favourite Zhang Xiaoping in the light-heavyweight final, with the suspicion of home-town judging rife.
Ciarán Carey’s incredible solo run and score in the 1996 Munster semi-final helps Limerick to the title against Clare.
On the way to winning bronze at the 1956 Olympics, Freddie Gilroy produced a memorable moment when he caught Russian Boris Stepanov, and gold medal favourite, with a sweet left hook in the third round and knocked him cold.
Kevin McBride, who fought for Ireland at the 1992 Olympic Games, beats Mike Tyson on a technical knockout when the American didn’t come off his stool for the seventh round.
Robbie Keane retires in 2016 after 146 games and 68 goals.
Pádraig Harrington wins 2008 US PGA at Oakland Hills
Kamikaze defending by Ireland in 1999 gifts a late goal to hosts Macedonia and denies Ireland a place in Euro 2000 finals.
Danoli, the people’s horse, wins the 2004 Sun Alliance Hurdle at Cheltenham.
The hard work done to bring the Tour de France start to Ireland in 1998 ensured this country’s tangential association with one of the most infamous sporting events of the century.
Dublin claim their first football All-Ireland in 12 years in 1995 and ‘Boom Boom Boom’ Jason ‘Jayo’ Sherlock becomes the darling of the capital.
The impact Conor McGregor, and his chosen sport, has made on Irish life is undeniable. If it is difficult to imagine many paying attention to MMA after him, while he’s around it will stay stuck in the headlines.
Mickey Harte takes off and then brings back on Peter Canavan as Tyrone wins their first – and the first final to be played between two teams from the same province – All-Ireland in 2003.
In 1955, a Dublin team with a defined possession-based gameplan were favourites to defeat the Kerry traditionalists. It did not happen and Kerry’s place in the game moved to another level.
A run-of-the-mill Leinster Championship game between Kildare and Offaly on June 1, 2013 leapt into the history books when it became the first to be played where Hawk-Eye scoring definition technology was used.
DJ Carey’s retirement shocked hurling in 1998 – before a headlinegrabbing u-turn and glorious second coming.
Eamonn Darcy beats Ben Crenshaw in vital 1987 Ryder Cup singles in Muirfield Village.
Bernard Dunne becomes world champion at the Point in March, 2009, claiming the WBA super bantamweight title by defeating Ricardo Cordoba with an 11th round knock-out.
Michael Conlan became the first Irishman to win gold at boxing’s World Championships when claiming an unanimous decision over Murodjon Akhmadaliev of Uzbekistan in 2015. The Belfast bantam even survived being floored in the third round in Doha.
Jonah Barrington wins six British Opens in seven years, 196773, becoming de facto world champion in squash.
Andy Lee wins the WBO middleweight title in 2014 against Russian Matt Korobov in the sixth round, forcing the referee to stop the contest.
Mick Meagan, as new Irish player-manager, is given autonomy to pick the team, replacing the ‘Big Five’ selectors (1969).
John Atyeo’s last-gasp equaliser for England at Dalymount Park in 1957 denies Ireland a shot at the World Cup finals.
Antrim tear up the script by beating Offaly in the 1989 All Ireland SHC semi-final.
Charlie McCarthy captains Cork to a storied All-Ireland SHC threein-a-row in 1978, not done since the great Cork team of the 1950s featuring Christy Ring.
Eddie Keher makes his senior bow in the 1959 All-Ireland SHC final replay for Kilkenny against Waterford, coming after he lined out in the minor final just weeks earlier, and signposting a phenomenal scoring talent. Remains a landmark day, too, in terms of Waterford’s last senior title.