Latest news with #IrishLeague
Belfast Telegraph
2 days ago
- Sport
- Belfast Telegraph
Strabane Athletic join Irish League ranks for first time thanks to Play-Off victory
Strabane Athletic will enter the Irish League for the first time in their history following victory in the Premier Intermediate League play-off against Mid Ulster Football League champions Crewe United at the Melvin Sports Arena.
Belfast Telegraph
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Belfast Telegraph
Carrickfergus reporter leaves Sky Sports News after 16 years: ‘My highlight was when Kyle Lafferty soaked me in beer'
Gilmour is the latest high-profile figure to leave the station following the departures of Melissa Reddy, Rob Wotton, Teddy Draper and Jasper Taylor. The 39 year-old cut his teeth commentating on Irish League games on BBC Radio Ulster's flagship Sports Sound show. During that time he served as Sky Sports News' Northern Ireland correspondent, where one of his first assignments was reporting on the Steel and Sons Cup Final on Christmas Day. He joined the staff of the popular station in 2012, where he soon became a familiar face, interviewing the likes of Antonie Conte and Jose Mourinho. He also commentated on Premier League, international and Irish League football for Sky Sports. The Carrick Rangers supporter now intends to work as a freelance sports reporter and commentator. One of his career highlights was an infamous interview with Kyle Lafferty, after Northern Ireland qualified for Euro 2016. He said: 'After 16 unforgettable years at Sky Sports News, it's time to say goodbye and look ahead to a new challenge. 'I've been fortunate to cover major tournaments, Champions League finals, and Premier League heavyweight clashes as well as interview some of the biggest names in world football. 'A personal highlight was following Northern Ireland, reaching a peak when Kyle Lafferty soaked me in beer and mocked my shoes on air after they qualified for Euro 2016. 'In that same interview, he (jokingly) said he wanted Northern Ireland to be drawn against either Argentina or Brazil…in the European Championships. Never a dull moment. A special group of players and staff, and the current side is shaping up nicely too.' Other highlights for Gilmour including interviewing England captain Harry Kane and a parrot that sang football songs. 'There were plenty of other standouts: sitting down with England captain Harry Kane multiple times over the course of his career, a quickfire 1 minute 37 second interview with Erling Haaland, and stepping into the world of Premier League commentary, something I'm keen to continue. 'And then there were the lighter moments… a feature about a dog that went viral for balancing things on its head, and a parrot that sang football songs. We waited three hours in the owner's house before it finally delivered. 'Growing up watching Sky Sports News, I'm incredibly proud to have played a small part in our history. I'll be forever grateful to my SSN colleagues and friends for their guidance, passion and humour over the years. 'Now, I'm stepping into the freelance world to see what's next. I'm open to opportunities'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Keith Gillespie says Bangor should have one main objective on top flight return
Keith Gillespie has welcomed Bangor's return to the Irish League's top flight as he said their objective for next season should be very clear. The Seasiders ended a 16-year wait to get back into the Irish Premiership again when they won the Championship last season. It completed a remarkable journey for Bangor as only eight years ago they were embarking on a very different path as they were preparing for life in the Ballymena and Provincial Football League. READ MORE: Jonny Evans was a Rolls Royce player who Manchester United should never have let go says former teammate READ MORE: Josh Magennis admits retirement fears put to bed after call with Michael O'Neill Under boss Lee Feeney and their ambitious board they have climbed the ranks to get back in the big time once more. Former Northern Ireland international Gillespie is delighted to see them back amongst the big boys again but he says Bangor should have one aim for next season. "They have really got the club back to where it should be. It is going to be difficult next season as a promoted club and with not having been in the league for such a long time," he said. "You look at the money clubs have now it can be quite difficult to compete, but it's great to see them back as it's been a long time. "That first year is going to be about consolidation. It doesn't matter if you finish third bottom you just have to stay in the league and potentially kick on the year after. "I went to quite a few games last season, I always try to get down and support them. They had a great cup run last season as well. I was at the semi-final at Seaview. "Lee has done a great job but the people behind the scenes are important as well. It is going to be hard but it is good to see them back up there. "I'm sure there will be a few new faces coming in now which you have to do as you're going up another level."
Belfast Telegraph
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Belfast Telegraph
Overturning Andy Ryan ban goes against Irish FA's own campaign, blasts referee Shane Andrews
Irish League referee Shane Andrews has hit out at the Irish FA's decision to rescind Andy Ryan's five-game ban, stating it flies in the face of the association's 'Catch Yourself On' campaign.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Former Irish league star now in top 10 in world in Hyrox, one of world's fastest growing sports
Not much had changed, people thought. Sean Noble still went to the gym. He still trained every day. Those who thought they knew him assumed he was still carving out a career for himself in the Irish League, but because they didn't follow Northern Irish football that closely, they weren't aware that this journeyman pro had called time on that particular journey and was trying something else. But those who did know this 29-year-old Dubliner realised something had changed. READ MORE: Boxer Georgia O'Connor, 25 dies two weeks after getting married due to 'rare and aggressive cancer' READ MORE: Live GAA on TV this weekend with 13 Championship games set to be screened Nothing seemed different at first but then they realised that everything about Sean was new. He was getting older. Wiser. Tougher. Most of all he was fighting to survive because grief had become an unwelcome visitor to his life. His father, a role model he looked up to and loved, had passed away from cancer, defying medical predictions to stay alive long after he was diagnosed with stage four cancer. 'He never complained,' Sean says. 'He got upset once. But that was it. He was such a positive person.' His dad was an army man originally, before he changed career midway through his life. Everything he turned his hand to, he succeeded at, but his greatest gift was his ability to be a father: loyal, steady, a guide. Every day, during Noble's childhood, he had his boy exercising. 'I didn't know it but I was training since I was young,' he says now. Football came easy to him. He was quick. He could finish and he played on the same schoolboy side as Jack Byrne, now the League of Ireland's most talented player. But football is ruthless. Jack Byrne went to Manchester City; Sean Noble to Bray Wanderers. He had a spell at Waterford, too, before catching a break up North where he played with Carrick Rangers, Ballinamallard and Ards. What happened was he was quick but just not quick enough. He could score - but others in the same position could score more. Then he got injured and a year was taken from his career and then coronavirus >Covid came and then his father got ill and before you know it, he was one of those players who was drifting from club to club and staying at the one level. When his father eventually passed, hurt took over. An author once wrote that when someone close to you dies, it's like coming out of a car crash. You may move on, but you do so with a limp and that limp is always there. And that is how it has been psychologically for Noble. He misses his father desperately. But he doesn't miss football. Because this one-time journeyman who was destined to never make it beyond the Irish League or League of Ireland is now the No8 ranked athlete in the world's fastest growing sport: Hyrox. The sport - 8km of running with eight mini-workouts coming in between each 1km run - began in Germany eight years ago. It has a marquee sponsor in Red Bull, now has 650,000 participants worldwide, and now has an Irishman as its eighth best participant. In a year, he plans to rise from No8 to No1. 'I want to be world champion,' he says in a way that tells you he'll drag himself to a dark place to get into the shape he needs to be in to reach that goal. And he'll need to go there because this is a brutal sport. Average athletes complete the course in an hour and a half, the elite - of which Noble is one - do so in and around 55 minutes. 'After dad passed, I did these stupid training sessions. It was OCD guilt. I buried myself in training,' he says. 'I was trying to see how far I could push things so that I could get to sleep at night. The mourning period is tough. You hurt. You miss the person who has gone so, so desperately. My dad was an inspiration to us. He was such a good man.' There's a gentleness to his son that masks the warrior underneath. We met in Barcelona where he was competing for a place in the world finals. A few weeks earlier, despite coming back from injury, he was agonisingly deprived of victory in an event in Glasgow because of a technicality. Rather than be angry, he stoically viewed it as a lesson. He wasn't sore over the ten second penalty because a man that sees someone he loves disappear from this earth gains an understanding that there are certain things you dismiss as irrelevant and certain things that really matter. A life matters; a loss doesn't. In any case he's discovering who he really is, the warrior within. Once, early in his football career, he made a minor mistake in a match which prompted the manager to berate him loudly in front of his team-mates. That pushed him into his shell and it took years for him to emerge from it. But now he well and truly has, to the extent that he earns more from coaching than he does from participating. Then, because he is an elite 15 operator in a sport with cult-like participants, sponsors came calling. If he wanted, he could turn full-time now, but because he is a diligent and loyal person, he is staying on as a trainee solicitor. But he's on a mission to be world champion driven by two things, himself and his father's memory. Noble intentions, you might say. Don't back against him getting there.
