It’s been quite a year in the life of Barry Solan, one which has brought him all around the world and occasionally the top of it too.

It’s 10 years ago now that they all came on stream together, the one B and 4 Cs.

Watching Arsenal’s worst start to a league in three decades roll on and Manchester United’s latest comeback against Aston Villa last weekend, our mind flashed back to the same weekend 20 years ago.

Hours like these he doesn’t miss.

Whenever I think of Seán Óg Ó hAilpín’s many superlative achievements — the journey from Fiji to Cork to the most coveted steps in Croke Park, the All Stars and All-Irelands won and captained, the transformation into corporate gold and cultural icon who transcended the game — it’s his disciplinary record that impresses us as much as anything.

Few sports in this country owe as much to one athlete in recent years as swimming does to Gráinne Murphy.

So, Eugene McGee’s FRC have decided to leave the provincial championships intact.

Watching the decline of Giovanni Trapattoni as Ireland manager brings to mind that scene in the 1968 film The Lion In Winter which Toby and Josh popularised in The West Wing by referring to it in a memorable scene of their own.

Some day he’ll enter those turnstiles in Thomond Park.

This is new for football, what it has with Messi and Ronaldo.