Reflecting on an amazing 2022

We're back to that time of the year where we look back and look forward at the same time and in the Observer sports department, we're no different! Or maybe we know what works as we return with our popular sports review of 2022 over the next few weeks.

Like last year, we've asked some of the county's brightest sports stars to look back over the last 12 months along with some of those journalists on the sports beat around the county.

Sports editor John Connolly looks back on an action packed 2022 and picks out his highs and lows of a rollercoaster year for Leitrim sport.

Willie Donnellan’s highs and lows of Leitrim’s sporting year

Highlight of the Year

Many hate it but I don’t think there has been an occasion to rival the two penalty shootouts in Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada in 2022. It is brutally tough, some might say unfair, but the penalty shootouts involving Sligo & Leitrim in the Tailteann Cup and Fenagh St Caillins and St Mary’s Kiltoghert was sport at its absolute finest - the drama, tension, excitement, joy and despair was incomparable and while I might be going against the grain here, I hope Leitrim GAA keeps the “Finish on the Day” protocols for next year’s championship. Also got to mention the Ladies Senior B Final between Kiltubrid and Ballinamore Sean O’Heslins - the best game of the year by far.

Lowlight of the Year

Salthill and Ballintubber - two venues separated by a few months and very different scorelines but the hurt was the same. Galway’s destruction of Andy Moran’s Leitrim was a real kick in the teeth and more amazingly it came after the Green & Gold carried the game to the Tribesmen in the first 25 minutes. Let’s be honest, nobody expected us to beat Galway that day but neither did anyone expect the pummeling Leitrim got in Pearse Stadium, it was as unexpected as it was deflating!

The pain of Kiltubrid’s loss in the Connacht Intermediate Club Final is not from a hammering but of wondering what might have been. Kiltubrid left themselves with a mountain to climb but the way it played out was heartbreaking as Kiltubrid drew level and looked set to push for victory only for Charlestown to hit them with two late blows. Tough, tough one to swallow.

John Lynch looks back over 2022 Sporting Year

Not a fan of penalty shootouts, John Lynch is a fan of Katie!

With the controversy over the staging of the World Cup in Qatar, what’s your view on the role of sport and politics/social issues- should they mix? Should they be kept separate?

The romantic in me says politics has no place in sport - sport is where we go to enjoy ourselves, to lift the burdens of our everyday cares and to dream again so politics definitely has no place there. But the realist in me thinks of the raised fists protests of Tommy Smith & John Carlos on the podium at the 1968 Olympics or the impact Colin Kaepernick made when kneeling during the American anthem.

What about Muhammad Ali and his battle against the US Government when they tried to conscript him? Or the effect Nelson Mandela had in bringing together a society riven by racism and hatred when he embraced the South African rugby team at the 1995 World Cup - that was politics mixing with sport and boy did it inspire change!

The World Cup should not have been held in Qatar, it was wrong and motivated by money, pure and simple but maybe hosting it in Qatar has shone a light on the plight of workers and immigrants in that country in a way that would never have happened had the World Cup not being held there and there is no doubt that the sporting community have raised awareness of so many critical issues simply because of their status as sports people.

From Tuam to Kenya, 2022 was a sporting odyssey for Leitrim Ladies captain Clare Owens

Personality of the Year

This is impossible because so many people impressed me in 2022 and it seems like a betrayal to leave anyone out so I’ve decided to cheat and compiled a list!

Lionel Messi - you’d have guessed by now that I’m a fan but seeing the Argentine great lift the World Cup ranks as one of the feel good stories of the year.

Aine Tighe - if feel good stories are your thing, then the Kiltubrid woman was certainly that in 2022. To see her shine for Fremantle Dockers in the AFLW after bouncing back from two serious in consecutive years was truly remarkable.

Israel Olatunde - Ireland’s fastest man reached a European 100m Final this year and did it with a humility that marks him out as a class act.

Keith Beirne - when opposition fans start clapping your scores, you know you’ve got something special on your hands. The Tailteann Cup Team of the Year was fitting recognition for a player who hit new heights in 2022.

Rhasidat Adeleke - running over 50 races between indoor and outdoor in 2022, it seemed every time the Tallaght AC sprinter stepped on the track, she was setting a new benchmark for Irish sprinting.

Michelle Guckian - her level of performance and the respect she commands around the country says far more than I ever could!

Muireann Devaney - the young Manorhamilton player seems to thrive on an incredible workload but the level of high performance she delivers week in, week out is truly astonishing. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some top class soccer club come calling in the near future!

Funding a big concern for Keith as Leitrim star aims for big 2023 with Green & Gold

Team of the Year

A tie here - Leitrim hurlers who won the Connacht Shield back last January and the Ladies footballers for retaining their Connacht Intermediate crown. It is a good day when any Leitrim team picks up silverware - an honourable mention for the Minor footballers beating Galway in championship action for the first time since 1998, that was a sweet one!

What are the big challenges facing Leitrim sport in 2023

Emigration is the big one as, after the Covid years, young people are heading to all parts of the world for adventure and work - and who would blame them! It’s going to have an almighty impact on the sporting clubs of the county with many areas already struggling for numbers. There’s a debate to be had about population imbalance within Leitrim and it is coming down the line much faster than people think as areas along the N4 corridor, the N16 corridor and along the Sligo and Donegal borders are growing rapidly while the rest of the county is withering on the vine and it is going to hit hard in the coming years.

Drumshanbo AC's Claire Fee and Ita Gray on clean-up duty after November's Connacht Athletics Even Age Cross-country championships held in Drumshanbo - the response from the local community to hosting the championships was the event that made John Connolly go “wow” in 2022 

Event that made me go wow in 2022

I was gobsmacked at the way the community in Drumshanbo came together to host the 2022 Connacht Athletics Even Ages Cross-country championships in early November - from the desire not to let the county down came a drive to ensure the Drumshanbo event was a driving success. The pouring rains of the previous months left the course a true cross-country test but athletes loved it and visitors were hugely impressed by the local organising committee. The way Drumshanbo Athletics Club marshalled every strand of the community together, the way all those disparate groups came together was truly, for me, the outstanding and most heartwarming story of 2022.

One thing I’d do to make sport better in 2023

I wrote a couple of columns in 2022 called “Build it and they will come” and the necessity of top class sporting facilities in the county became ever more apparent over the past 12 months as 2022 really hit home how far we’ve been left behind in Leitrim when it comes to sporting facilities. All-weather pitches, running tracks, indoor arenas and floodlit playing areas are taken for granted in other counties.

It was eye opening to walk across the pitch at Ballintubber's St Croan’s in November for the Connacht LGFA  Intermediate Final - the pitch was so good that it was better than any field in Leitrim in September! The new astro-turf pitch at the Dromahair Arts & Recreation Centre has made a huge impact in the area and the local community deserve huge credit but if we want top class sports people to emerge from this county, we’ve got to provide them with top class facilities.

Conor Farrell reflects on an amazing year for St Mary's Kiltoghert

One to watch in 2023

You don’t have to be Nostradamus to know that Barry McNulty is a player who could shine for Leitrim for years to come. Called into Andy Moran’s Senior set-up, it is hard not to be excited by his potential. The same goes for both Ben Guckian and Paul Honeyman. I am loath to load pressure on Barry, Ben or Paul, there’s many twists and turns in a sporting career but this trio do give hope for the future.

Check out next week's Observer for the final part of our sporting review of the year from Niall Morahan, Muireann Devaney, Gerard O’Donnell and Michelle Guckian.