IRELAND has failed to return the compliment of the 1987 Tour De France title win by Stephen Roche.
When Roche won the Tour, Ireland was soaked in the success of his achievement and that of his cycling colleague Sean Kelly.
Though the days and hours of unforgiving preparation to win the world’s most gruelling sporting event were in vain, Ireland, Roche agrees, has a second bite and must not be caught twice shy when the Tour starts in Cork this summer.
Roche was in Belfast yesterday as a Bord Failte agent for the promotion of Tour De France En Irlande 1998.
“I’m bringing a camp to Ireland to coincide with the Tour De France starting here, so maybe Ireland as a whole can build on the success of the Tour’s arrival,’’ said Roche.
“The popularity of the sport has quadrupled since I won but here in Ireland we have failed to capitalise on a rare achievement.
“There’s no doubt about it, there has been total failure to build on the 1987 Tour,” adds Roche.
“I don’t why, maybe people thought that the ball would just keep on rolling on its own.
“But then big Jack Charlton and football came about and the Irish team were doing so well. The kids got off their bikes and kicked football.”
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WAYNE McCullough tonight enters a new avenue in his ring career.
The Sportsman’s Lodge California, however, will host the Belfast-born fighter’s quietest entrance to the ring, facing unknown, Lupe Rangel.
The comeback fight comes one year after McCullough’s WBC bantamweight title loss, at the gloves of Daniel Zaragoza.
The rebuilding of the forgotten man’s career, takes place after months of negotiations, contract wrangles and broken bones and promises.
Now, number one contender for the WBC crown, McCullough will fight super-bantamweight champion Erik Morales next month, all going well in LA.
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THE Railway Cup squad to play Tyrone in a challenge game in Dungannon tomorrow is as follows: JJ Doherty, N Hegarty, T Boyle (Donegal); K McKeever, H Downey, G Coleman, A Tohill, J Brolly, S Downey (Derry); M McVeigh, B Burns, M Linden, C Deegan (Down); K McGeeney, P McGrane, D Marsden, J Burns (Armagh); D Smyth (Monaghan); B Morris, D McCabe, P Reilly, C Brady (Cavan); P Brewster, R Gallagher (Fermanagh); F McConnell, P Devlin, P Canavan, G Cavlan (Tyrone); M Mulholland (Antrim).
Ulster play Munster in the Railway Cup semi-final at Roscommon on January 25.
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JIM Nelson will remain Antrim camogie manager, after holding talks with the Antrim camogie county board last night.
It was reported last weekend, that Nelson has quit the post, after the county board, refused to grant funds for the county side’s 1998 training schedule.
Nelson, when asked had he resigned, refused to comment.
The county board last night issued a statement following its meeting with the senior management team of Nelson, John Crossey and Olcan McFettridge.
The statement read: “The Antrim county camogie board wish it to be known that the current team management of John Crossey, Olcan McFettridge and Jim Nelson, remain in charge of their adult teams for this coming season.
“Contrary to media reports last weekend, the team management received no personal reward for their services.
“Both county board and management look forward to another successful year in 1998.”
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LAST season’s Ulster senior boxing champion Paul Conlon is calling for a Commonwealth Games box-off to decide who should travel to Kuala Lumpur after having to pull out of tonight’s Irish senior championships.
Conlon, a Belfast barber shop owner, is still smarting after his recent Smithwick’s Ulster final defeat by St Canice’s rising star Paul McCloskey.
And the power-punching Holy Trinity boxer wants an opportunity to prove a point to Ulster’s boxing selectors before the team is ratified for Malaysia in September.
But a bout of ‘flu has ruled out any prospect of a reversal or a repeat of the provincial fight of the year at the Ulster Hall, Belfast on December 16 when the slippery skills of the Dungiven southpaw snatched the U’prichard Cup from Conlon’s grasp on a 16-12 computer scoreline.
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SOUTH Belfast GAA outfit Bredagh is facing homelessness after its landlord, the Poor Sisters of Nazareth religious order, gave the club six months notice to leave its premises.
The nuns are planning to build a nursing home on part of the 8 and a half acre site where Bredagh’s pitch is currently located on the Ravenhill Road.
And despite negotiations between the two parties, the club, which plays its football in the Down Leagues, has been told it must vacate its premises by the end of May.
Bredagh has spent an estimated £150,000 in developing its ground and dressing-room area over the past 12 years and the club’s Prunty pitch is reckoned to be one of the best playing surfaces in Down.
The cash was invested in the facilities after Bredagh officials signed a 25-year lease on the site with the Poor Sisters in 1985.
The agreement did provide for the possibility of Bredagh having to leave the location but this was not seriously contemplated at the time by the south Belfast club.
