Peter Jackson: Who is Ireland's greatest sportsperson?

From 19th-century emigrants to modern global stars, this is a meditation on Irish sporting greatness — and Rory McIlroy’s place within it

IRELAND'S GREATEST?: Roy Keane at Croke Park. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile.

ONCE upon a time long gone, two little boys from the same village in Donegal set sail for distant shores. One landed on the banks of the Clyde, the other half a world away beside the Pacific Ocean.

The genesis of The Great Irish Sportsman can be traced back to their departure during the last quarter of the 19th century from Ramelton on the western bank of Lough Swilly. As three-year-olds, they went their separate ways by the same surname, just two more families uprooted by the chill wind of hard times blowing through their bones.