Katie Taylor should hang up her gloves and retire, according to her dad and former coach Pete Taylor.

Light-heavyweight Joe Ward found out about boxing injustice the hard way when he missed out on the London games but his focus now in only on Rio.

Team Ireland’s chief medical officer Dr Rod McLoughlin will be on high alert over the coming weeks in Rio, writes Brendan O’Brien.

Jackie O’Reilly won’t be in Rio de Janeiro to watch her daughter Ellis make her Olympic bow as an Irish gymnast, but the mum of four already knows what it is to burst with pride from afar as her offspring take to the global stage.

Gary Brennan seldom gets the chance to showcase his outstanding football talents for a national audience. But the Clare captain has won an army of admirers, including International Rules boss Joe Kernan, as the Banner’s footballers begin to rise again.

Stevie Collins Jnr put his nine-month injury lay-off behind him with a bizarre win in the early hours of Sunday morning in London, then set his sights on a pivotal 2015.

Tyson Fury admits the time for talking is over ahead of his much-anticipated heavyweight fight against Dereck Chisora at London’s ExCeL Arena tomorrow.

Irish fans will be able to watch Katie Taylor’s bid to claim a remarkable fifth straight AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championship belt after TG4 secured the rights to screen her semi-final and final bouts next month, if she gets to that stage.

Gary Barlow threw a chair across the room at 'The X Factor' auditions.

Belfast boxer Martin Rogan describes his own battle for recognition as well as the spats he’s had en route to becoming Commonwealth champion.

Last Tuesday was a mixed bag for grapplers.

July

Olympic Gold medallist and world champion Katie Taylor was named as the RTÉ Sports Person of the Year.

As expected, Katie Taylor was last night named the RTÉ Sports Person of the Year for 2012.

Four crazy, blurred months have spun by since Katie Taylor claimed gold at the ExCel Arena in London and Peter Taylor, her father and coach, expressed the hope that his daughter would walk away from the ring for the last time.

In a time of downturn and gloom in Ireland, there are growth areas.

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.

Ten weeks and a day.

David Haye insists only a fight against WBC world heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko will tempt him back into the ring.

Katie Taylor made it clear yesterday she would prefer to turn her back on the professional ranks and fight to retain her gold medal at the 2016 Olympic Games and the Bray boxer is expected to announce her final decision on her future within the next 10 days.

There have been mixed results for Irish athletes so far on the eighth day of the Paralympic games with Boccia hopeful Johnny Cronin unsuccessful in his bid, and cyclist Colin Lynch marked as DNF (Did Not Finish).

Jason Smyth today qualified in first position for tomorrow's final of the 200m T13 final in the Paralympic Games.

A day of almosts.

The Paralympics are underway in London this morning with several Irish athletes involved.

Tomorrow evening, the opening ceremony for the 2012 Paralympics will serve as the world’s portal to over 4,000 athletes which Channel 4, the host country’s broadcaster, have been calling superhumans in their clever, pre-Games advertising campaign.

TWO weeks ago, in this column, I wrote about how a suspension of disbelief was required to make the most of watching the Olympic Games.

It has often been rumoured that there was gold to be found in Co Wicklow.

Ireland's John Joe Nevin and Great Britain's Luke Campbell will resume one of the most intense and engrossing rivalries in amateur boxing today when they fight for Olympic bantamweight gold at the ExCeL Arena at 8.45pm.

Twenty four hours after winning an Olympic gold medal life has already begun to change for boxer Katie Taylor.

Almost a quarter of the population switched over to watch Katie Taylor’s gold medal-winning boxing match on Thursday, according to RTÉ.

The crowds and the noise level may not have rattled the Richter scale to the same extent as Katie’s gold medal moment, but the Irish were again out in force in the ExCel arena yesterday afternoon.

British boxer Natasha Jonas, who was unlucky to meet Katie Taylor in her opening Olympic bout, has been invited to the All-Ireland Hurling Final next month at Croke Park.

The youngest member of Team Ireland, Michael Conlan, has added to Ireland’s historic Olympic medal tally tonight.

Michael Conlan is aiming to book a place in the Olympic flyweight boxing final this evening.

John Joe Nevin is hoping to emulate compatriot Katie Taylor with Olympic gold after seeing off world champion Estrada Alvarez to reach the final of the men’s bantamweight division.

Paddy Barnes is devastated after his countback defeat to China's Zou Shiming in his Men's light flyweight semi-final at the ExCel Arena.

A bronze medal-winner had to use his medal to get into an Olympic arena after security did not recognise his identification photograph.

Katie Taylor’s home town has thrown down a new challenge to the sporting world — she is bigger than Usain Bolt.

Only five medallists from Beijing have survived as the Olympic boxing tournament in London reaches the semi-finals and two of those will face each other today (1.30pm) when the defending light flyweight champion Shiming Zou will face Ireland’s Paddy Barnes for a third time.

A little cabinet in the corner of a sitting room in Bray is set to welcome a new inhabitant.

London's ExCel arena became a part of Ireland this afternoon as legions of supporters decked in green, white and gold packed into South Arena 2 before 4:45pm to watch the person who would ultimately become Ireland's latest Olympic Gold medallist - Bray heroine Katie Taylor.

Final preparations are being put in place for the screening of Katie Taylor's Olympic final in her hometown in Co Wicklow.

All week we’ve been bombarded with television images and radio interviews with a young boxing pioneer stating her dream for the future — to win a gold medal.

In a grubby little corner on the edge of Bray, down by the harbour, sits the town’s boxing gym.

God knows, RTE have got their money’s worth from Jimmy Magee over the years.

Katie Taylor woke up this morning feeling more alive than she ever has in her life.

A leading Irish boxing official has predicted Ireland could have 10 boxers qualified for the Olympic Games in Rio in four years’ time.

Paddy Barnes has become the first Irish boxer to win medals at consecutive Olympic games.

She may be on the brink of bringing home gold, but magnetic Katie Taylor’s feet will remain firmly on the ground.