The people have spoken – Here’s Ireland’s ‘Most Admired Athlete’

Rory McIl­roy may have joined golf’s all-time greats by win­ning the Mas­ters and com­plet­ing the Grand Slam, but Katie Taylor remains Ireland’s ‘Most Admired Ath­lete’.

That’s accord­ing to the Teneo Sport and Spon­sor­ship Index (TSSI), a 1,000-strong sur­vey con­duc­ted by Teneo’s Sports Advis­ory team and iRe­ach Insights.

Taylor topped that cat­egory for the ninth suc­cess­ive year, receiv­ing 14% of the vote. As in 2024, a win in her only fight of the year, the highly anti­cip­ated tri­logy fight against Amanda Ser­rano, was enough to see the Bray boxer retain her crown.

Katie Taylor. Pic: Noam Galai/Getty Images for Netflix

Troy Par­rott debuts on the list in second place on 10% after his goalscor­ing hero­ics against Por­tugal and Hun­gary that kept Ire­land’s World Cup hopes alive.

McIl­roy takes third place (7%) after com­plet­ing the career Grand Slam at Augusta, fol­lowed by Shane Lowry in fourth (6%) after the Clara golfer sank the putt at Beth­page to retain the Ryder Cup for Europe.

Bundee Aki, the Ire­land, Con­nacht and Brit­ish and Irish Lions centre, shares fifth place (4%) with double Olympic box­ing cham­pion Kel­lie Har­ring­ton, recently retired jockey Rachael Black­more and the Repub­lic of Ire­land men’s foot­ball inter­na­tion­als, Caoimhín Kelle­her and Séamus Cole­man.

Pic: ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP via Getty Images

The exploits of Heimir Hallgrímsson’s Repub­lic of Ire­land team also cap­tured the ima­gin­a­tion of sports fans. Par­rott’s last-minute hat-trick in Bud­apest, seal­ing a fam­ous 3–2 win that kept Ire­land’s World Cup dreams alive, was voted the ‘Most Mem­or­able Sport­ing Moment of 2025’ with 37% of the vote. In second place (12%) was Katie Taylor’s vic­tory over Amanda Ser­rano in their tri­logy fight at Madison Square Garden.

Two golf­ing moments share third place on 10% each — McIl­roy’s Grand Slam clinch­ing putt to win the Mas­ters at Augusta and Shane Lowry’s cel­eb­ra­tions after hol­ing a pres­sure seven-foot putt on the 18th at Beth­page to retain the Ryder Cup for Europe.

In fifth place with 6% was Kate O’Con­nor embra­cing her father and coach Michael after win­ning sil­ver in the hep­tath­lon at the World Ath­let­ics Cham­pi­on­ships in Tokyo.

Kate O’Connor. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

The TSSI sur­vey with quotas across gender, region, age and social class, exam­ines the Irish pub­lic’s atti­tudes towards sport and their sport­ing her­oes.

The find­ings reflect the views of the gen­eral pub­lic, not solely sports fans or experts. Now in its 16th year, the research was car­ried out in the Repub­lic of Ire­land between Decem­ber 3 and 11.

It’s the first time since the research began that the Repub­lic of Ire­land men’s foot­ball team has been named ‘Team of the Year, secur­ing 25% of the vote after lift­ing the nation with wins against Por­tugal and Hun­gary to secure a place in the World Cup play-offs.

The Triple Crown win­ning Ire­land men’s rugby team take second place for the second year run­ning on 14%, while the Repub­lic of Ire­land women’s foot­ball team fin­ish third with 12% fol­low­ing their pro­mo­tion in the Nations

League. GAA teams round out the top five with All-Ire­land men’s senior foot­ball cham­pi­ons Kerry in fourth on 10%, and the Tip­per­ary senior hurl­ers in fifth place on 8% after win­ning the Liam Mac­Carthy trophy for the first time since 2019.

Kerry captain Gavin White lifts the Sam Maguire. Pic: INPHO/Morgan Treacy

Gaelic games (Gaelic foot­ball, ladies Gaelic foot­ball, hurl­ing and cam­o­gie) was voted ‘Ire­land’s Favour­ite Sport’ for the eighth con­sec­ut­ive year, receiv­ing 21% of the vote. Soc­cer (men’s and women’s) rises to 20% and remains Ire­land’s second favour­ite sport, fol­lowed by rugby (men’s, women’s and 7s) in third place on 15%.

Ath­let­ics and ten­nis share fourth place with 5% each, while golf sits in sixth place on 4%.

As for 2026? The FIFA World Cup is the most anti­cip­ated sport­ing event next year, with 21% of the vote, ahead of the ever-pop­u­lar rugby Six Nations Cham­pi­on­ship on 18%. The World Cup play-offs in March, where Ire­land have a chance of qual­i­fy­ing for the tour­na­ment, rank third on 16%.

Reflect­ing the strong pub­lic interest in major global events, the Winter Olympic Games place fourth with 12%. Round­ing out the list are next year’s All-Ire­land Senior Hurl­ing Cham­pi­on­ship (10%) and the All-Ire­land Senior Foot­ball Cham­pi­on­ship (8%).