Harrington’s Law: Irish sport in 2025 showed the power of persistence

Talent is obvious, fortune can be fickle, but persistence is everything.

Rory McIlroy’s journey was compelling precisely because of its transparency: he has always been willing to break down, in unforgiving detail, the thin margins that separate success from failure. Pic: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

Sometimes a sporting competitor summarises a truth so completely that it deserves to be established as a tenet. In this case, we submit Harrington’s Law.

Pádraig Harrington transformed himself from a nearly man with 29 second-place finishes on the European Tour to a three-time major winner, all three of which came during a ferocious 13-month window. What changed? After a magnificent display of links golf at Royal Birkdale in 2008 to secure a second successive Open, Harrington offered his profound answer: essentially, nothing.