Seamus O’Brien was barely a teenager when his brother Pascal arrived back home from seminary one time to usher him and another brother Brendan out the door and on to a train bound for Kingsbridge Station in Dublin.

Eddie Hearn has Katie Taylor primed to spearhead a breakthrough for women’s professional boxing but she can’t do it all on her own, writes Brendan O’Brien.

The imminent meeting of Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather in Las Vegas, and the inexorable awfulness of the build-up, may have scaled new heights of nonsense but Sin City and the fight game have always been perfectly in step when it comes to the art of show business and bluster and the business of making money.

Irish athletes face an uphill struggle at the World Athletics Championships, which kick off in London tomorrow. Fierce global competition and drugs are two obvious reasons but there are obstacles a lot closer to home, argues Brendan O’Brien.

“I make no apologies for it — I’m the guy who wants to bring the Olympics to Dublin.”