25. Ireland women’s darts team (retaining WDF World Cup title)
Ireland and World Cups rarely go hand-in-hand, but Kevin Devaney’s team know very little of group-stage exits or quarter-final curses.
Captain Robyn Byrne, fellow Dubliner Katie Sheldon, Donegal’s Denise Cassidy and Kilkenny’s Aoife McCormack made easy work of Australia to secure another WDF World Cup title in Seoul, South Korea.
All four contributed wins as part of the 9-1 demolition of the Aussies to take back-to-back titles, following up on their 2023 victory over Wales.
24. Sophie O’Sullivan (NCAA 1,500m title)
You can only imagine how many times, and in how many ways, Sophie O’Sullivan has heard something to the effect of “she’s her mother’s daughter”. But pedigree alone doesn’t win races.
O’Sullivan jnr blew the rest of the field away in claiming the NCAA 1,500m title in June, becoming just the fifth Irish woman to earn an NCAA title. You hardly need a clue to guess one of the other names on that exclusive list.
23. Greta Streimikyte wins gold at the Paralympic World Championships
This was a long time coming for the Lithuanian-born Irishwoman. Streimikyte is a two-time Paralympian and a three-time European Champion, but she had never won gold on the world stage until she streaked home in the T13 1,500m event in New Delhi in September. After a decade of trying to make the breakthrough, she was in no mood to wait any longer and demolished the field to win by 12 seconds.
22. Róisín Ní Riain (World Championships medals)
LA might still be two-and-a-half years away, but Róisín Ní Riain is evidently keeping up her form from last year’s Paralympic Games to carry her through this four-year cycle.
The Limerick 20-year-old stormed the Para Swimming World Championships in September, showing the completeness of her skill set in pocketing medals in each of the four strokes (three silver and a bronze) before finishing off with another bronze medal in the SM13 200m individual medley.
21. Sarah Rowe wins the A-League soccer title with Central Coast Mariners
Sarah Rowe, right, with fellow Mariners player Brooke Nunn celebrate winning the A-League final against Melbourne Victory in May. Photograph: Olivier Rachon/Getty
The Mayo multi-sport demon added another notch to her belt by playing pro soccer in Australia in the AFLW off-season. She was a key asset at right-back as the Mariners took a fairytale first league title, winning on penalties against serial champions Melbourne Victory. Rowe then returned to Collingwood to complete her seventh season in Aussie Rules, becoming the second Irish woman to make 75 AFLW appearances.
20. Claire Melia
How big a hit did Claire Melia prove to be with Spanish basketball team Baxi Ferrol? Well, the club’s supporters donned orange wigs. Say no more. The Kildare native became the first Irish woman to play in a European club final when she sent Ferrol in to the decider of the EuroCup by scoring on the full-time buzzer in their semi-final. French side Villeneuve d’Ascq ultimately proved too strong in the final, but it was some season for the Irish international.
19. Aoife Wafer (Six Nations player of the tournament)
As Aoife Wafer’s star has risen, so too has Ireland’s.
Four tries in the Six Nations, a pair of braces against France and Wales, and the most carries of the championship saw the 22-year-old named player of the tournament in May.
Surgery ruled her out for Ireland’s World Cup pool games. The return of her scarlet scrum cap was a sight to behold for the quarter-final clash against France, despite the result not going Ireland’s way.
18. Bláithín Bogue, Erika O’Shea and Vikki Wall win the AFLW title with North Melbourne
Vikki Wall of the Kangaroos kicks a goal during the AFLW final against Brisbane Lions in November. Photograph: Jonathan DiMaggio/Getty
The Irish contingent aren’t making up the numbers in Aussie Rules. North Melbourne are the dominant force in the women’s game there and this was a historic season in which they went the whole way unbeaten. Wall and O’Shea picked up their second winners’ medals, having also been part of last year’s triumph. But rookie Bogue was a revelation, scoring 25 goals in 15 games and making it on to the All-Australian team of the year.
17. Caitríona Jennings
Sensible folk might opt to travel 100 miles in a vehicle, but in November, Caitríona Jennings chose to run the distance. And not only did she survive the ordeal at the race in Illinois, she broke the world record. She finished fourth overall, in what was her debut at the distance, and almost four hours ahead of the next best woman. The 45-year-old, who competed in the marathon at the 2012 Olympics, has an engine like few others.
16. Eve McMahon wins bronze at the sailing world championships
Everyone could see Eve McMahon was coming, but the speed of her arrival still came as a lovely surprise. After a stellar junior career, she immediately set her stall out in the senior ranks, winning a bronze medal at the World Championships in China in May. She went on to have the number one-ranked boat in her class in mid-summer, the first time any Irish sailor has risen to the top of the world rankings.
15. Orla Comerford (Double World Champion)
The best in the world, two times over. A bronze medallist in Paris last year, Orla Comerford upgraded to gold in the T13 100m at September’s Para Athletics World Championships.
Orla Comerford celebrates winning gold in the World Para Athletics Championships in September. Photograph: Tocko Mackic/INPHO
The Dubliner’s commanding run to secure her first World Championships medal put her rivals on notice for the 200m final, where she saw off World Record holder Rayane Soares da Silva for the second time in two days to top the podium once more.
[ Orla Comerford: ‘Female sprinting in Ireland is probably the strongest it’s ever been’Opens in new window ]
14. Kelly Brady/Athlone Town
After graduating from the University of Mississippi, the New Yorker, with Monaghan and Galway roots, decided to give it a go with Athlone Town in the Irish league. How did she fare? Well, she helped them to a league and cup double with her 26 goals, was voted player of the year and earned a first call-up to the Ireland senior squad. So, not bad. For pure thrills, nothing quite topped her hat-trick in the FAI Cup final.
13. Fiona Murtagh
Having won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics in the women’s four event, the Galway rower was far from convinced when coach Dominic Casey suggested she try going solo in 2025. “I was like, ‘What?’” But come June, she won European Championship silver in Bulgaria in her first single sculls final at elite level. And come October, she won gold at the World Championships in Shanghai. Sound advice, as it proved.
12. Sarah Healy (European Indoor title)
It might not have been the prize Sarah Healy had her eye on for 2025, but a first European Indoor title, coming in the 3,000m, is too substantial to be considered a consolation prize.
Sarah Healy beats Great Britain’s Melissa Courtney-Bryant to win the 3,000m final at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in March. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/INPHO
The 24-year-old came of age in the senior ranks in Apeldoorn, positioning herself perfectly in the pack to make her move rounding the final bend, jumping from third to first as she pushed for the line while her challengers faded.
[ Sarah Healy on becoming European Indoor champion: ‘I knew people thought I was capable of a lot more’Opens in new window ]
11. Rachael Blackmore retires
Horse racing’s first lady stepped away and though it was sad to see her go it was a genuine delight to know she was able to get out on her own terms. She finished with 18 Cheltenham winners, placing her eighth on the all-time list. She added the Stayers Hurdle this year to complete the clean sweep of the five biggest races at the festival. Add in the 2021 Grand National and it was a magnificent, ground-breaking career.
[ Malachy Clerkin: In Rachael Blackmore, horse racing had maybe its greatest ever assetOpens in new window ]
10. Hannah Tyrrell’s last game for Dublin ends in All-Ireland glory
Tyrrell dragged Dublin to the final, with an especially defiant performance overcoming Galway in the semi-final, including a last-gasp free to take it to extra-time. She kicked five points in the final as Dublin ran roughshod over Meath. It finished with her limping awkwardly off the pitch near the end: as she said herself afterwards, if you’re going to do your ACL then best to do it at the end of your last game with the All-Ireland in the bag.
9. Abbie Larkin’s goal v Belgium
Abbie Larkin celebrates scoring a late goal against Belgium in October. Photograph: Mick O’Shea/INPHO
Three weeks before Troy Parrott unleashed late-late delirium in Budapest, Abbie Larkin did the same for the women’s team in Leuven with her 90th-minute goal against Belgium when extra-time was looming in their Nations League play-off. Brilliantly taken it was too by the young Dubliner, Larkin spinning past her marker before dinking the ball over the ’keeper. That gave Ireland a 5-4 win on aggregate and a place in the A division of the competition. Bliss.
8. Katie-George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly
No race in 2025 better summed up the grit of Katie-George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly than the Road Race at the Para-cycling World Championships. The pair had everything thrown at them – a slow puncture, a wheel change and a jammed chain. And with two laps to go, they were left 25 seconds adrift of the leaders. But? They won, completing a third golden world double in a row, having already triumphed in the Time Trial. True grit.
7. Lara Gillespie (UCI Track World Championships gold)
Lara Gillespie wins gold in the women’s final at the UCI Track World Championships in October. Photograph: Javier Torres/Getty
A world champion without a velodrome to call her own. Lara Gillespie pulled off a stunner to beat two-time Olympic champion Katie Archibald to gold in the elimination race at the UCI Track World Championships in Chile, backing up her European title from earlier in the season.
And that’s after having made history as part of an Irish trio at the Tour de France Femmes, highlighted by a third-place finish on stage four.
6. Ellen Walshe wins gold and silver at the European swimming championships
What an end to 2025 it was for Irish swimming – and particularly for Ellen Walshe. The Dublin swimmer went to the European short-course championships in Poland as someone to look out for and finished as someone you couldn’t take your eyes off. She won silver in the 200m individual medley and followed it up with the best performance of all, taking gold in the 200m butterfly on the last night. A star is born.
5. Aoife O’Rourke (World Boxing Championships title)
Aoife O’Rourke is declared the winner on points after her fight with Busra Isildar in September. Photograph: Kieran Smith/INPHO
There’s nothing like sibling rivalry to bring out the best in you. Three years after younger sister Lisa won the light middleweight title at the IBA Women’s World Championships in Istanbul, Aoife O’Rourke did the same with an emphatic win at this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool.
The Castlerea fighter utterly outclassed Busra Isildar in the middleweight final in September, showing remarkable stamina to maintain a blistering tempo throughout the five rounds, almost running rings around the Turkish fighter to win 5-0.
And as if getting battered and bruised in the ring (although, she’s usually the one doing the battering) weren’t enough, O’Rourke also subjected herself to the torture (as our colleague Gordon Manning can attest) that is Hyrox. She didn’t have to go too far in search of a suitable partner, Aoife and Lisa teaming up to become pro doubles World Champions. The cabinet in the O’Rourke household is surely fit to buckle under the weight of all their success.
Looking to 2028, Aoife said making it to the LA Games alongside her sister would be “truly special”. With their talent and form, that sounds more like a plan than a dream.
4. Katie Taylor
Our five-time Sportswoman of the Year added yet another memorable chapter to her boxing story in 2025 when she beat Puerto Rico’s Amanda Serrano for the third time in their trilogy at a sold-out Madison Square Garden, New York.
The crowd cheers at the fight between Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor at Madison Square Garden, New York, in July. Photograph: Sarah Yenesel/EPA
Taylor made history all over again. It was the first time that the venue hosted an all-female card, her victory, which was shown live on Netflix – with an average of six million viewers – leaving her as the undisputed light-welterweight world champion.
[ Keith Duggan: Katie Taylor erases all the question marks with her third win over Amanda SerranoOpens in new window ]
The crowd of just under 20,000 was the biggest for an all-women’s boxing card and the highest attendance for a female sporting event in Madison Square Garden’s history.
Despite having lumps knocked out of her, Serrano paid the warmest of tributes to the Bray woman after the fight.
“Thank you, Katie Taylor, for an incredible three fights and 30 rounds. It has truly been an honour to face you, a true champion and warrior. So blessed to have shared the ring with such an amazing fighter. To be considered the greatest, you have to act like one. You do that both in and out of the ring.”
She does too.
3. Galway win an epic camogie All-Ireland final
This wasn’t supposed to be Galway’s year. Cork were going for three-in-a-row and strolled through the group stage, posting four victories from four games with an average winning margin of 23 points. Galway won four from four in their group as well, but though they had run Cork to a puck of a ball in 2024 they were clear underdogs in the final.
Galway’s Carrie Dolan lifts the All-Ireland senior camogie trophy at Croke Park in August. Photograph: Ben Brady/INPHO
Not that they cared. Led by a supernova display from wing-forward Aoife Donohue, they rattled into Cork and took and early lead through a Mairéad Dillon goal. They led by five at half-time, but Cork weren’t going to relinquish their title easily and when Ashling Thompson found Orlaith Cahalane with a minute to go, the Cork full-forward pounced to level matters.
Galway had come too far to let it slip by then, however, so it fell to Carrie Dolan to land a monster free to win it. An All-Ireland final for the ages had got the ending – and the winners – it deserved.
2. Katie McCabe wins Champions League with Arsenal
It was a strange old year for the Irish captain. Her form was often below her usual standards, but when it mattered most she produced the goods – for Arsenal in the Champions League and for Ireland in their Nations League play-off.
Arsenal’s Katie McCabe, top, and team-mates celebrate winning the Champions League in Lisbon in May. Photograph: Zed Jameson/PA
In May, she became the fourth Irish woman to win the Champions League, and the first in 18 years, when Arsenal beat the three-in-a-row-seeking Barcelona in Lisbon. Her marking job on Caroline Graham Hansen, whom she rendered largely anonymous, played no small part in that victory. And her celebrations were, well, epic.
McCabe started all 15 games in that campaign, meaning she played more minutes than any player in the history of the Champions League.
And come that play-off against Belgium, she was inspirational, producing performances up there with her best for her country. There were her two goals in the 4-2 win in Dublin and then in the return leg in Leuven, when she won her 100th cap, she drove the team on again. Their 5-4 aggregate win sealed promotion to the Nations League’s top flight and a (marginally) easier path to the next World Cup. A stage on which McCabe’s talents belong.
1. Kate O’Connor wins World Championship Silver
Some years just belong to a standout performer. Whatever Kate O’Connor goes on to do in across the rest of her career, there is no question that 2025 will always be the year when she burst from the sidelines and made everyone else pay attention. She changed the way people saw not just her but her chosen event as well. That’s a powerful thing.
Kate O’Connor celebrates jumping a lifetime best height at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/INPHO
As has been said a million times this year, Ireland has no history of multi-sport athletes. Kate O’Connor is entirely self-made, coached by her dad, carried along on the weight of her own momentum. She started the year by taking bronze in the European Indoor pentathlon in the Netherlands then followed it up a fortnight later with silver in the World Indoors in China.
The question was could she repeat the trick outdoors when the big guns were finished their winter training. Could she ever. She went to the World University Games in Bochum and dominated, winning gold in the heptathlon by over 400 points. Then, on the biggest stage of all, she went head to head with Olympic, world and European champions and looked right at home.
Over two days in Tokyo, she obliterated her own national record in terms of points scored and set personal bests in five of the seven events. And she did it all while carrying an injury throughout day two, limping home in the 800m to grab her silver medal.
At the end of an incredible year, Kate O’Connor turned 25 last week. There’s no telling how far she can go over the next couple of Olympic cycles.
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