Irish Examiner view: Katie Taylor is a true people’s champion

'This humble girl from Bray, Co Wicklow, certainly had moments of disastrous disappointment — the Brazil Olympics in 2016 and her defeat by Chantelle Cameron in Dublin in 2023 — but we shared her despair, and we were 100% behind her as she fought to exorcise those demons'.  Picture: Brian Lawless/PA

Very few sporting occasions have ever united the country with a sense of both joy and pride.

Italia ’90, Declan Kidney’s Grand Slam-winning rugby team of 2009, and perhaps even Mayo’s recent All-Ireland football success. Each one inspired and awed the whole nation. Those involved in those teams attained an unparalleled place in the hearts of the Irish people.

Others may have briefly basked in the shiny glory of the gratitude of the population by lifting the mood of the nation out of the grim reality of everyday toil.

But few individuals have managed that in the same way that Katie Taylor has done.

Right across her stellar career she has lifted Irish spirits —both those here at home and the millions of the Irish diaspora — on such a consistent basis.

Throughout her amateur career in the ring, she boxed with guts, determination, and no little skill, culminating in a gold medal at the Olympics in London in 2012.

In the professional game, where there are oceans of shark-infested waters, she negotiated her way safely to an unimaginable record of 26 wins and just one loss and, in doing so, united the people in a joyous cataclysm of shared euphoria.

This humble girl from Bray, Co Wicklow, certainly had moments of disastrous disappointment — the Brazil Olympics in 2016 and her defeat by Chantelle Cameron in Dublin in 2023 — but we shared her despair, and we were 100% behind her as she fought to exorcise those demons.

The Irish people were with Katie every step of the way, even when personal crises intervened in her life, and the universality of support for her was as blissful for the fans as it was for Taylor herself.

Indeed, following Saturday’s historic victory in Croke Park, she summed it up beautifully: “I think people — the whole country — has seen me in my good times, but also during my devastations as well. I think people really resonate with your vulnerabilities as much as your successes.”

That they did. And more than that, the number of children and young people who were inspired by Taylor to pursue their sporting dreams and ambitions as fearlessly as she did is as impressive as any of her sporting achievements.

Enjoy your retirement, Katie, and our individual and collective thanks for the joy you fostered. We truly may never see your like again.

You have been — and will always remain — a true people’s champion.

Training youths on road use

Is it not about time that we got fully to grips with the levels of carnage on our roads?

The level of road deaths is now — and has been for many years — a seemingly inexplicable morass of failure where people are dying unnecessarily in a fabric of tragedy which has seemed impossible to shred.

Change is needed across many of the threads of our society if we are to reduce the grim death toll.

As highlighted by the Social Democrats in the past few days, drastic changes are needed. And that starts with the way we train our young people about their lives as road users.

A first step would be the introduction of a compulsory road safety and driver theory test programme in our secondary schools to teach what is expected of them when they climb
behind the wheel of a car or onto a motorbike.

They also need to undergo mandatory training about how to cope in emergency situations. Such programmes might cost money, but it is a price worth paying.

In their worldview, the Social Democrats — as reported in today’s paper — stress that road safety needs much more than a policing response and, rightly, that better education and training will go a long way towards the ends we need to achieve.

The entire country was stunned by a number of recent incidents, especially that of the wrong-way driving on the M9 last month. Our reaction now has to be one of purpose and vigour.

One such course of action would be universal support for the allocation of new funds to the Road Safety Authority (RSA) to allow it to develop an eight- to 10-week programme across the entire secondary school network which would include the employment of 50 full-time development officers.

The estimated €5.5m cost of such a plan is but a mere fraction of the more than €700m we paid out between 2019 and 2024 in awards for injuries sustained in road traffic accidents. The cost to victims and their families in the emotional impact is incalculable.

Protecting democracy

As US president Donald Trump prepares to visit our country this week, it is worth remembering that we have a safe, strong, and thriving democracy.

Back in his home country and as the vital November mid-terms elections approach, it seems reasonable to conclude that Trump is doing everything in his power to stop America from remaining a bastion of democracy.

A series of moves by the US administration in recent weeks and months have intensified concerns there among voting experts that it is moving to exert greater control over the November elections — and future presidential contests.

It is feared that those within his political orbit will encourage him to declare a national emergency on national security grounds to delegitimise November’s results in order to “protect” elections.

No previous president has ever attempted to declare an emergency to assert control over voting, and experts contend such a declaration would not supersede the constitutional restrictions of executive power on election administration.

Election integrity is a vital element in any democracy, and Americans might just be about to find out that they might lose theirs sooner than they ever imagined.

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