The red carpet treatment on the entrance into The Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year awards, in its now customary home of the Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel, features a short walk - a few stone steps - followed by onward momentum into the Great Hall, where the work of the great and the good over the last 12 months is celebrated.
But there doesn’t seem to be much likelihood of any true rest or down time over the upcoming festive period, with one athlete after another – from sporting arenas of dreams ranging from athletics tracks and boxing rings to pitches and velodromes – letting master of ceremonies Des Cahill know there would be little or no stepping back.
The desire and commitment to achieve greatness, epitomised by each of the monthly award winners and the overall sportswoman of the year for 2025, the multi-discipline athlete Kate O’Connor, have brought them to national and international prominence.
A small number of the recipients were unable to attend in person, but with good reasons. Rugby international Aoife Wafer has the small matter of a match with her new club Harlequins in Twickenham. Cyclist Lara Gillespie was caught up in a code-red weather hazard away on training camp. And boxer Aoife O’Rourke was attending her sister’s wedding.
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The majority of winners were able to make it to a Great Hall festooned in Christmas lighting and decor. The only thing that seemed to stop basketball international Hazel Finn – the MVP with Liffey Celtics in their National Cup win back in February – for the slightest moment was the fire alarm briefly cutting through the air during her chat with Cahill. It stopped quickly, with no evacuation necessary. And on the show went.
Each of those monthly award winners brought insights into the sort of work and determination required to reach the tops of their chosen sports.
Like Dubliner Ellen Walshe informing us all that she started swimming internationally when aged 13, when the wake-up alarm sounded at the ungodly hour of 4.30am. “I’d be in the water for five,” she remarked.
Many of these sportswomen managed to compete in multiple sports when younger before the decision came to focus on one. Cahill a good man for getting any mention of his beloved Cuala into the narrative and he noted that Sarah Healy – the European indoors 3000m champion – had been a more than decent underage player with the club. “She could have played for Dublin,” he insisted.
Although you suspect Healy’s peers in the room, not least the overall winner who was seated beside her, were sure she had made the right move to concentrate on athletics, even if she too admitted there would be no rest day around Christmas. Eyes and preparations are already moving forward to next year’s European Championships.
Cora Staunton, an 11-time All Star and four-time All-Ireland winner with Mayo, was inducted into the roll of honour of Outstanding Achievement winners, in recognition of a stellar sporting career that even sent her Down Under as one of the trail-blazers going for a spell playing Aussie Rules.
As Staunton modestly accepted the accolade, she referenced her own sporting childhood, when Sonia O’Sullivan was her role model.
“When I was a seven-year-old running around in Carnacon I wanted to be a footballer. I didn’t want to be a 3,000m runner or a 5,000m runner but Sonia was the one leading woman I could look up to ... it is great to see now young girls growing up have a room full of women to look up to, which is brilliant,” said Staunton.
That observation from Staunton was backed up by hard numbers from Dr Una May, the chief executive of Sport Ireland, who said the gender gap between women’s and men’s participation in sport was now just 2.9 percent.
The collection of leading sportswomen at this, the 21st edition of the Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year awards provided evidence of the broad breadth of sporting endeavours and success.
Monthly winners–December 2024: Ellen Walshe (Swimming); January: Hazel Finn (Basketball); February: Lara Gillespie (Cycling); March: Kate O’Connor and Sarah Healy (Athletics); April: Aoife Wafer (Rugby); May: Katie McCabe (Soccer);June: Fiona Murtagh (Rowing);July: Katie Taylor (Boxing); August: Katie George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly (Cycling); September: Aoife O’Rourke (Boxing) and Orla Comerford (Athletics); October: Kelly Brady (Soccer); November: Caitríona Jennings (Athletics).
