Colin Sheridan: A reflection on the Irish sporting landscape in the summer of 2000

It was an odd summer of sport, elevated by Sonia, and little else. Sometimes you have to look back at the past to truly appreciate the present

Sonia O'Sullivan with her silver medal at the Sydney Olympics. File picture: Billy Stickland/Inpho

A quarter of a century ago, in the summer of 2000, the Irish sporting landscape was a bit of a desert. 

The odd oasis gave hope of the better tomorrows that would come, but, with an Olympic Games in Sydney offering the chance of, perhaps, two medals at best, we are talking about times of great austerity, which is ironic, because it was right about then that Irish banks started doling out credit cards like communion wafers.