Taylor wins Sports Person of the Year

Olympic Gold medallist and world champion Katie Taylor was named as the RTÉ Sports Person of the Year.

Viewers complained however after the presentation of the award to the boxer was interrupted by an advertisement break.

Oh dear #RTE, what happened to the sports awards??? Katie Taylor's big moment was a disaster

— Maeve Connolly (@ConnollyMaeve) December 23, 2012

The station later broadcasted an apology, blaming a “technical issue”.

#rtesportsawards sincere apologies for the technical issue at the end of tonights programme. We're investigating how it happened.

— Ryle Nugent (@ryle_nugent) December 24, 2012

[comment]RTÉ later released the award presentation without the advertising break.[/comment]

According to the official Cork GAA twitter account, the station was in contact to apologise after Cork’s Archdeacon Michael O’Brien was mistakenly included in the ceremony’s obituaries section: “RTE have been in contact to apologise for the incorrect listing of Archdeacon O'Brien as deceased and are investigating how it occurred #gaa”

Contrary to listing on RTE Sports Awards, Archdeacon Michael O'Brien is alive and well #gaa

— Cork GAA (@OfficialCorkGAA) December 23, 2012

2012 has been an amazing year for Bray native Taylor, who won her fourth consecutive World title at the AIBA Women’s World Championships in China, before going on to win Olympic Gold in the final of the Women’s 60kg competition at the ExCel Arena in London.

Taylor beat Russian opponent Sofya Ochigava 10-8 and became the first ever Olympic female lightweight champion.

Her win represents Ireland's first boxing gold medal since Michael Carruth won in Barcelona in 1992.

After another hugely successful year with the Irish boxing team, Billy Walsh was named as the RTÉ Sports Manager of the Year.

The head coach with the IABA's High Performance Unit headed up this country's most successful Olympic Boxing team as they came home from London with a total of four medals.

As well as acknowledging this year’s sporting achievements, the awards also paid tribute to one of Ireland’s sporting legends. Former Republic of Ireland soccer manager Jack Charlton was honoured with the RTÉ / Irish Sports Council Hall of Fame Award.

During his 10 year reign as manager, the Republic of Ireland qualified for two World Cups, a European Championship and peaked at No.6 in the FIFA World rankings.

Jack was presented with his award by former Irish International Ray Houghton; who made his debut for the Republic of Ireland during Jack's first match in charge against Wales in 1986.

Donegal’s All-Ireland winning football team was the winners of the Team of the Year award and manager Jim McGuinness was on hand to collect the award.