RTÉ awards no-show by fighting Irish explained

Two Irish sports stars who enjoyed successful years were absent from Sunday night’s RTÉ Sports Awards - though for very different reasons.

Boxer Katie Taylor and mixed martial artist Conor McGregor missed the event and their no-shows were explained yesterday.

On his RTÉ Radio show, Seán O’Rourke was discussing the awards with colleague Pauric Lodge and wondered as to the whereabouts of Taylor, who won a fifth consecutive world championship title last month. Lodge revealed there is a dispute between the boxer and the state broadcaster. “Katie has issues with RTÉ’s coverage of boxing,” he said.