One of the strengths that Niall Quinn brings to his new role as FAI Interim Deputy Thingummyjig is that he reminds many people of one of the happiest moments of their lives.

The choice is coming, and Rhasidat Adeleke knows it’s a big one. Should she stay or go?

WORLD sculls champion Sanita Puspure got an early birthday present yesterday when she won the 2019 Sportswoman of the Year award.

Well-known figures such as Fiona Shaw, Joe Duffy and Sonia O’Sullivan tell Richard Fitzpatrick about the reads they’ve been most impressed with in 2019.

Lowry, who was presented with the award by his father Brendan, dedicated the honour to Clara GAA stalwart John Buckley, whose His funeral takes place tomorrow.

It is not before time that Sonia O’Sullivan was inducted into the Irish Athletics Hall of Fame. She has been one of our greatest athletes ever.

It was both a look back and a glance forward — an appreciation of a past great and the heralding of her successor. And through all of yesterday’s National Athletics Awards in Santry, there was an excited sense of expectancy with an Olympic year starting to loom on the horizon.

The longlist was revealed on RTÉ 2FM show Game On with the final shortlist to be announced on Radio 1's Sunday Sport.

The shortlist for Ireland’s greatest sportsperson has few permanent cast members, but Sonia O’Sullivan has always featured on it.

Safi, a port city on Morocco’s Atlantic coast, is not the kind of place you expect to be reminded of the seismic and lasting impact of an athlete from Cobh

Sonia at 50, then.

The rich tapestry of Irish rural life is reflected in the 2,500 or so projects nationwide which have been approved for LEADER rural development funding.

The 14-minute personal best Aoife Cooke ran on the afternoon of the Dublin marathon a fortnight ago - she was the first Irish woman home in 2.32.34 - would have been enough to get her onto the start line at any previous Olympic Games.

Shane Lowry might be focussed on the Turkish Airlines Open and the Race to Dubai but he admits that it would be “an incredible honour” to carry to Irish flag at next year’s Olympic Games and a dream to win gold.

When I was in Ascot on Saturday watching the rugby and how disappointing it was after all the hype which surrounded it and the team, it got me thinking and comparing it with our own sport.

Breaking Sonia O’Sullivan’s 24-year-old Irish 1500m record is one of the key things keeping Ciara Mageean motivated while drug scandals continue to haunt and damage her sport.

Ireland’s Alex Wright has finished down the field in 31st in the men’s 20k walk at the World Athletics Championships in Doha.

Sport Ireland CEO John Treacy has called on Russia to be banned from the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo if they are found to have manipulated data released to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

It’s a cliche, but it’s true. You really start to find out how much there is to do in your country when you stop making eyes at other countries.

August of 1969 was a month of events in Northern Ireland which have echoed down through history.

Scintillating, thrilling and full of potential - Ciara Mageean has moved considerably closer to Sonia O’Sullivan’s long-standing Irish women’s mile record by carving three-and-a-half seconds off her lifetime best in Monaco, in a race where the vintage world record was smashed by Sifan Hassan.

Ireland international soccer player Louise Quinn is having a ball as a fully signed up member of the Arsenal women’s team.

It was another day of records at the Irish Life Health/Munster Schools’ Championships which took place in blustery conditions at Cork IT.

For 20 years Michael Corcoran has been working in RTÉ, covering and commentating on the Irish provinces’ exploits in Europe, writes Kieran Shannon.

People who have never lived in one have no what a small town is like.

Ireland’s fastest woman lived up to her billing with a brilliant performance at the Irish Universities Athletics Championships in Athlone on Saturday.

Marjorie Brennan speaks to James McLoughlin about his striking life-size piece of sculpture on display at Cork Airport

World premieres and prestigious touring productions will feature in the Everyman Theatre’s spring/summer season.

Having been there, done that, Sonia O’Sullivan and David Matthews know all about the path — and indeed pitfalls — between underage and senior success.

SAY hello to addiction, the gift that keeps on giving. Like an eternal game of Whack-A-Mole, you subdue one and another pops up.

Despite his off-field spats with Irish players, Roy Keane has risen in a poll of Ireland's most admired sports personalities.

By now it’s among the reliable All-Ireland final traditions that somehow never die. Camogie’s answer to Up for the Match — the annual audit of how things stand with coverage of women’s sport.

World champion race-walking star Rob Heffernan has announced his retirement from international athletics.

Tori Bowie was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“There’s more flexibility in terms of going to weddings and important things like that. I can’t say I’ve met everyone loads in the last couple of months but at the same time, I’ve a little more flexibility.”

A new fitness app that allows women to adapt their training and nutrition needs around their menstrual cycle has been endorsed by the Ladies Gaelic Football Association.

Dublin may have had 30,000 runners pounding its streets in the women’s mini marathon but all attention went Lee-side.

National champion Gary O’Hanlon believes tomorrow’s Irish Examiner Cork City Marathon will be one of the most challenging editions of the event.

Rio Olympian Lizzie Lee insists age is no impediment to running fast marathons and says becoming a mother has actually helped her, physically and mentally, to get even quicker this year.

Your lunchtime headlines.

Young women stand up and fight — that is the rousing cry of barrister and owner of Lissadell House, Constance Cassidy.