We asked 12 of West Cork’s headline-making sports stars to tell us about the favourite Christmas present they’ve received!
‘One Christmas we got Buzz for the Playstation. I am so competitive and that brought the competitive side out of everyone in the family and anybody that came to visit!’ – Phil Healy, Olympic finalist and European silver medallist
‘I got a pool table when I was young, possibly when I was around nine or ten years old. We spent hours playing on it’ – Conor Hourihane, Barnsley player/coach
‘My favourite Christmas present would probably be the Wii. We got it when we were younger and every year it does make an appearance throughout Christmas at some stage. When there is family over, there is a game of Mario Kart and it could get pretty competitive but it also provided us with a lot of entertainment down through the years’ – Nicola Tuthill, Olympian and three-time Irish women’s hammer champion
‘When we were younger, we used to get full soccer kits there for a while. My brother always got an Arsenal one and I had a couple of different ones. One that stood out was a Leeds United away navy kit with Whyte and Mackay as the sponsor. It’s always one I’d remember’ – Luke Meade, Cork and Newcestown hurler
‘It was last Christmas when we got over the line against Claremorris to win the All-Ireland junior club championship!’ – Laura O’Mahony, O’Donovan Rossa ladies captain and Cork footballer
‘It’s a toss-up between a teddy bear I got off my granuncle when I was really really young, like when I was two or three years old. I still have it and still keep it on my bed to this day. Or a plug-in electric motorbike that I used to zoom around in when I was seven or eight!’ – Saoirse McCarthy, three-time Camogie All-Star
‘It would probably be a laptop I got about six or seven years ago. It’s an Apple laptop. I still use it every day. Every evening I research races on it, look at videos of horses that I’d be riding the next day’ – Brian Hayes, Cheltenham-winning jockey
Four-time All-Ireland winning Cork footballer Martina O'Brien was a big fan of the Playstation 1 she received for Christmas in 1997.
‘It was probably a Playstation 1 back in 1997. It wasn't the greatest year to get a Playstation as there was a storm and the electricity was out for about two to three days but when we did manage to get to play it, we weren’t seen for a couple of days. It was a great year!’ – Martina O’Brien, 2024 county winner with Clonakilty (senior B football) and Ballinascarthy (premier junior camogie)
‘I got a laptop when I was in my first year in college; it got me through college, it got me through a good few years of training and planning and all that’ – Fintan McCarthy, two-time Olympic rowing gold medal winner
‘When I was about seven years old I got a doll and a pram. Literally, that doll went everywhere with me for about three or four years. She definitely graced the bowling roads of West Cork on numerous occasions. As an adult, it was flights to Birmingham and going to see Cats: The Musical in the Hippodrome there. That was pretty spectacular’ – Geraldine Curtin, Munster senior women’s road bowling champion
‘My favourite present was a necklace that my brother gave me last Christmas. It has the date from the national cross-country senior title I had won from last year engraved on the back of it. That was my first national title and it’s probably even my favourite race to date so it was nice to have that reminder’ – Fiona Everard, 2023 Irish senior women’s cross-country champion
‘Probably the 2002 white Adidas Predator Mania football boots when they came out first. I was fairly spoiled by my parents when I was young. I still am, I suppose!’ – Brian Hurley, Cork football captain
Check out The Southern Star’s digital platforms – Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, YouTube and southernstar.ie – for our 12 Sports Stars of Christmas, in partnership with Kevin O’Leary Group Bandon.
