Does Troy Parrott’s goal make your top five Irish sporting moments?

Does Troy Parrott’s last-minute goal against Hungary to make it a hat-trick and qualify the Republic of Ireland for the World Cup playoffs make your top five Irish sporting moments of all-time?

What are your five greatest Irish sporting moments? Our writers have had their say below, and you can use the form at the bottom of the article to send us yours.

Malachy Clerkin

Packie Bonner makes his save during the shootout against Romania. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho

“Give us your top five moments there,” said the sports editor, as if it was a normal thing to ask. As if there’s any way to narrow it all down from the endlessly spinning tombola of Irish sporting moments from down the years. Ask me tomorrow and it will be different from today. Ask me in half an hour, even. There’s no rhyme or reason to this stuff.

But, since he asked, here goes. First off, sorry Troy, Sunday doesn’t make the cut. It was amazing, it balm for the soul, it was everything you’d want. But I was 11 years old during Italia ’90 and I want to keep this list to one per sport. So the penalty shoot-out against Romania is probably always going to be the top of the shop.

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What else? Rory McIlroy winning the Masters this year has to take the golf slot, if only for the sheer, heart-stopping terror of watching him so nearly not doing it. Rachael Blackmore winning the Grand National had me punching the air even as the many horses I backed in the race had long since cried enough.

On the Olympic front, Kellie Harrington’s win in Roland Garros last year is the only Irish gold medal I’ve actually experienced in person so that has to go in. And since the GAA world is entirely parochial, I’ll take Tommy Freeman’s point at the end of the 2013 Ulster final, sealing Monaghan’s first title in 25 years and sending Clones into orbit.

So that’s my list. Ah here, now I see that three of them are in the past four years. Sure that’s a cod. Can I try again tomorrow?

Malachy Clerkin’s top five Irish sporting moments

Ireland v Romania penalty shoot-out, June 25^th, 1990
Rory McIlroy wins the Masters, April 13^th, 2025
Rachael Blackmore wins the Grand National, April 10^th, 2021
Kellie Harrington wins Olympic gold, August 6^th, 2024
Tommy Freeman seals Monaghan’s first Ulster title for 25 years, July 21^st, 2013

Philip Reid

Padraig Harrington celebrates victory at Carnoustie. Photograph: Inpho/Getty

The question comes as a loaded one. “Name your five greatest sporting moments,” with the kicker, “...by an Irish sportsperson.”

Loaded? Because the memory of Troy Parrott’s hat-trick in Budapest is so recent and so raw. Did I roar at the inanimate object, the television, when the third goal to beat Hungary hit the back of the net and Darragh Maloney’s hysterical, emotion-filled commentary coming from the gogglebox on the wall was almost lost to our own guttural yells? Yes, for sure. The language unprintable, which tells its own tale.

One of the great sporting moments, by an Irish sportsperson, for sure.

But, in the top-five? Hmmm.

Could I put it ahead of Pádraig Harrington’s win in The 136^th Open at Carnoustie? No. Nothing beats being live in the flesh at a major sporting event and Harrington’s win – in a playoff over Sergio Garcia – at the time felt monumentally historic, the first Major win by an Irish golfer since Fred Daly’s 60 years previously. It was dramatic, tearful and – hardly believable – the opening of the floodgates to many more with Graeme McDowell, Rory McIlroy, Darren Clarke and Shane Lowry adding to the lore. But Harrington’s was the start.

In the top-five ahead of Sonia O’Sullivan’s gold medal performance in the World Athletics Championship in Gothenburg? No. O’Sullivan’s many trials and heartbreaks were healed in that dominant win and a nation embraced her that day.

I was at the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996 when Michelle Smith swam to her three gold medals. At the time, in the madness of it all, that feat would have gone top of the list, any list; but the memories and the performances are now tainted. So, not in the top-five.

So, what else?

Katie Taylor’s historic lightweight gold medal from the London Olympics in 2012. Yes. Her subsequent world title professional duels with Amanda Serrano may have been box office but that gold medal win over Russia’s Sofya Ochigava set the legend on its way.

And, back to golf, yes I’m biased, Rory McIlroy’s Masters win – beating Justin Rose in a playoff – in April of this year brought him into an elite club of six men to complete the career Grand Slam.

Finally, and no offence to Troy Parrott, to a time in a World Cup finals when Ray Houghton put the ball in the Italian net in the Giants Stadium in New York at USA ‘94. There was plenty of roaring at the television that time too.

Philip Reid’s top five Irish sporting moments

Pádraig Harrington wins the Open Championship at Carnoustie, July 22nd, 2007
Sonia O’Sullivan wins gold medal at World Athletics Championships in Gothenburg, August 12th, 1995
Katie Taylor wins gold medal in London, August 9th, 2012
Rory McIlroy wins the Masters, April 13^th, 2025
Ray Houghton scores winner for Ireland against Italy in World Cup, June 18th, 1994

Mary Hannigan

Ireland’s Amber Barrett celebrates scoring her goal with teammates as she gestures to the black armband worn in memory of those affected by the tragedy in Creeslough in Co Donegal. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho

How do you measure the greatest Irish sporting moments of all time? You can’t, so the only way to judge them is to recall how much they made you bawl. Using that yardstick, Troy Parrott’s winner in Budapest, and his interview after, came mighty close to making the top five, only excluded because of a pesky refusal by the powers-that-be to allow 27 joint fifths.

In reverse order, then.

The final whistle in the 1992 All Ireland football final – which led to Sam Maguire having his first year-long holiday in Donegal. It’s hard to recall any sporting triumph that meant as much to a people as it did to the folk of Tír Chonaill – although the cousins were insufferable about it.

The 2021 Grand National was an eerie one, it being staged behind closed doors due to Covid, but the historic sight of Rachael Blackmore steering Minella Times home? Spine-tingling.

An obvious inclusion – Katie Taylor winning Olympic gold in 2012. The roar in that arena when her arm was raised? Extraordinary. Her story was already a remarkable one, this chapter was sublime.

There are no end of moments to choose from in the Jack Charlton era, Italia 90, of course, supplying a far chunk of them. But Euro 88 kick-started the loveliest of journeys, Ray Houghton inserting the ball in the England net sending us in to raptures.

Amber Barrett’s brilliantly taken winner against Scotland at Hampden Park, that qualified Ireland for the World Cup for the first time, would have been emotional enough. But the fact that her first thoughts were for the people of Creeslough back home, where 10 people had died only days before in an explosion at a petrol station, made it a moment never to be forgotten.