Owen Polley: Northern Ireland punched above its weight in sporting glory in 2025

It’s easy to forget that a province of fewer than two million people would not normally expect to produce a glut of successful sportspeople.

Of course, the Holywood golfer is not just one of our many over-achievers – he’s a genuine global megastar.

In an editorial last week, the News Letter argued that McIlroy fully deserved the adulation of fans across the whole UK, exemplified by the SPOTY award.

In previous years, the BBC faced criticism for its ceremony, which some viewers claimed had lapsed into tokenism.

The short-list of potential winners was formerly compiled by sports editors from Britain’s newspapers. In 2012, though, they were replaced by a panel of industry ‘stakeholders’, to ensure more diversity. The results have sometimes been unpopular or controversial since then.

For example, Northern Ireland’s serial World Superbikes champion, Jonathan Rea, was not one of the final six contestants in 2019 or 2020. During that period, he won two more world titles, making him the most successful rider ever in his sport.

This year, there could be no such complaints. McIlroy is arguably the highest-profile golfer in the world and golf is one of the planet’s most popular spectator sports.

His US Masters win at the Augusta National course was a perfect example of sport’s tendency to produce great redemption stories.

In 2011, Rory crumbled in the final round of the tournament, losing a four shot lead and carding double and even triple bogies.

He acquired a reputation as a ‘choker’ among some of his critics, including boisterous American Ryder Cup fans. Indeed, his win in April ended an 11-year wait for a major title, which included some agonising near misses.

McIlroy’s play-off victory against Justin Rose, under almost unimaginable pressure, now becomes part of golf folklore, as well as a legendary new date in Northern Irish sport.

That is before we mention his brilliant, stubborn performance at the Ryder Cup in September. As the European team’s biggest star, and an outspoken players’ representative on the PGA tour, he became the main target for abuse from some US supporters.

Instead of wilting, McIlroy thrived under this pressure, and the defiant strains of European fans singing, ‘He’s in your head! Rory! Rory!,’ to the tune of The Cranberries’ song, ‘Zombie’, became the unofficial anthem of Europe’s win.

McIlroy may be our current superstar, but we should be proud of many other extraordinary performances this year.

While our sports teams have often competed bravely on an international stage, for example, few have actually become world champions.

This year, though, Josh Rock and Daryl Gurney won the World Cup of darts for the Northern Ireland team, during a memorable competition in Frankfurt. The final against Wales was nail-biting, going down to the last possible leg.

As I write, Ballymena’s Josh Rock is still competing for solo glory at the glitzy PDC World Championships, which are taking place at Alexandra Palace in London.

Equally, Northern Ireland is not known internationally for road cycling. You may therefore have missed that, last year, Adam Rafferty from Dungannon won a stage of the under-23 Giro d’Italia, the junior version of one of the sport’s most prestigious events.

Rafferty also came third in the European Championships for the same age bracket and his older brother, Darren, competed in cycling’s World Tour, one of sport’s toughest circuits.

In football, Northern Ireland can boast a Premier League champion, Conor Bradley, who also frequently captains our international team. The 22-year-old from Aghyaran, near Castlederg, became an important part of Liverpool’s title winning line-up last season and continues to impress at Anfield, despite suffering some frustrating injuries.

In boxing, the Belfast welterweight, Lewis Crocker, won the IBF world title, fighting Paddy Donovan at Windsor Park. His fans in Northern Ireland are now eagerly looking forward to next year, when he hopes to defend his title in April and potentially unify the weight division in the autumn.

Likewise, in 2026 the Commonwealth Games will return to Glasgow. One of Northern Ireland’s biggest hopes will be Kate O’Connor, the heptathlete, who won a silver medal at this year’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. She will be joined in the team by stars like the Olympic gold medal gymnast Rhys McClenaghan and the swimmer, Bethany Firth.

Northern Ireland football fans also have a lot to look forward to next year. Michael O’Neill’s team still hopes to reach the World Cup finals in the US, Mexico and Canada.

In March, the Green and White Army will travel in their thousands for the play-off semi-final match against Italy in Bergamo. It will be a hugely difficult game, but the team is young, talented and audacious enough to reach the final against Wales or Bosnia, if it performs as it can.

The eventual prize is to play matches on the biggest stage of them all, in Toronto, Seattle and Los Angeles, come the summer.

For Northern Ireland’s sports stars, then, 2025 was incredible but 2026 could be even better. There can be few regions in the world that regularly excel more, relative to their population size.

In sport, as in so many other fields, Northern Ireland gives us successes that we can be truly proud of.