Conor O'Sullivan
writer, sub-editor
Senior sub-editor for The Independent, previously sports writer/sub-editor at The Times and Sunday Times sports desk with bylines in both titles.
The Times
Ryder Cup top of Shane Lowry’s new year wish list
Shane Lowry arrives on a cold December morning at Morton stadium, Ireland’s national athletics ground, in the suburb of Santry, north Dublin. We meet in an empty changing room underneath the stand that also contains a high-performance gym — where Lowry, the world No 19, will later head for a workout with his strength and conditioning coach Robbie Cannon.
Last Saturday, the 32-year-old added RTE’s Sports Personality of the Year award to the Open he won by six shots at Royal Portrush in July. H...
The Times
Free-transfer Gary Cahill brings winning mentality to resolute Crystal Palace
Gary Cahill is accustomed to emerging victorious from big games. It would be fair to assume winning the 2012 Champions League final with Chelsea would be impossible to top but perhaps Crystal Palace’s recent run of good form is yielding a different but no less significant satisfaction.
Cahill, 33, produced another solid display after replacing the suspended Luka Milivojevic as captain in his team’s 2-1 victory away to West Ham United on Saturday. The two-times Premier League winner has led bo...
The Times
Chelsea’s academy graduates score top marks
All of Chelsea’s 11 league goals this season have come from their English academy graduates. It is a statistic that would have appeared improbable for much of the Roman Abramovich era, when the pursuit of trophies has driven a recruitment strategy based on expensive foreign signings and when the youth team have often been used to bring in money to cover that spending.
The appointment as head coach of Frank Lampard this summer, a two-window transfer embargo for breaking Uefa rules on signing y...
The Times
West Ham United beat Norwich City as expensive front four begin to show their worth
It is an indication of West Ham United’s ambitions that a comfortable home victory against a promoted team was tinged with frustration. Their front four of Felipe Anderson, Andriy Yarmolenko, Manuel Lanzini and Sébastien Haller were guilty of not humiliating a Norwich City side they had at their mercy.
The quartet will cause any Premier League defence problems if they can be consistent. Yarmolenko, 29, and Lanzini, 26, suffered respective long-term achilles and knee injuries last season but l...
The Times
Southampton may have unearthed another gem in Moussa Djenepo
Moussa Djenepo took very little time to announce himself as a Premier League player. The 21-year-old Mali winger scored 78 seconds after being introduced by Ralph Hasenhüttl, the Southampton manager, against Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.
Djenepo’s acceleration, quick dribbling and sublime finish helped his side to a first Premier League win of the season and demonstrated that Southampton’s recruitment department may have unearthed a gem from Standard Liege for a fee that could rise to £...
The Times
Pukki becomes a marked man
Teemu Pukki has maintained his prolific goalscoring form in the Premier League after finishing last season as the Sky Bet Championship’s top scorer with 29 goals during Norwich City’s promotion campaign.
Pukki is level on four goals after two games with Manchester City and England forward Raheem Sterling. His hat-trick against Newcastle United on Saturday made him the first player in the competition’s history to score as many as four goals in his first two games. He has also matched these per...
The Times
‘For Rory McIlroy to shoot 61 on that course was unique’
Stephen Crooks still remembers the moment at Holywood Golf Club that he knew a skinny teenager with curly hair named Rory McIlroy was bound for stardom.
“When he was 15, Rory drove the par-four 17th at Holywood 340 yards to the green,” Crooks, the head professional at Holywood, says. “There’s a water hazard at the 300-yard mark that most players can’t clear. That’s when I knew that there was something special about him.”
“People called him the ‘wee superstar’. His work ethic was incredible, h...
The Times
The Masters 2019: ten to watch at Augusta
Rory McIlroy, 29, Northern Ireland
World ranking 3
Best Masters finish 4, 2015
The bookmakers’ favourite heading into Augusta after his win at the Players Championship — his 15th win on the PGA Tour and first in a year. The Northern Ireland native has seven top-ten finishes in eight events this season and has finished in the top ten at Augusta in the past five seasons. The 2011 Masters remains the site of his most scarring career experience when he blew a four-shot lead with a final round eig...
Irish Independent
Kidney out of Exile
Declan Kidney remains a beacon of calmness despite the mounting anxieties surrounding the future of London Irish.
The former Ireland head coach, who has a Grand Slam and two Heineken Cups on his CV, is facing a different task from his previous jobs following his return to professional rugby.
Kidney and former Ulster director of rugby Les Kiss - the pair reunited from their Ireland tenure - are attempting to pull off a great escape from Aviva Premiership relegation with only two games remainin...
footballwhispers.com
Dyche Is Everything Everton Need In A Manager
From the moment Ronald Koeman was shown the exit door at Everton, there were instant murmurings of Sean Dyche stepping in as his successor.
Koeman paid the price for failing to transform Everton’s £140million outlay on summer transfers into results, with the club languishing in the bottom three by the time the Dutchman was sacked.
Burnley, meanwhile, who ended the last transfer window with a net spend of £15million, are high-flying under the gravel-voiced tactician. He celebrated five years i...
RTE
Burnley Irish confident ahead of World Cup double header
Robbie Brady says the Ireland squad are feeling "no pressure" going into the two upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Georgia and Serbia.
Ireland travel to Tbilisi for Saturday’s Group D encounter (5pm, live on RTÉ) before facing Serbia at the Aviva Stadium on September 5.
The Boys in Green are currently level with Serbia on 12 points but are in second place on goal difference.
"The squad isn’t feeling any pressure going into the games," Brady told RTÉ Sport after Burnley’s 1-1 draw with Spu...
storgy.com
Syndicate By Conor O’Sullivan
The warm evening air clung to Charlotte’s arms when she exited Waterloo and set off towards Brad Street. Clear skies, spread like a quilt over the city, suggested a long twilight. People told anecdotes in that shrill tone that comes after a few drinks as she walked by the crowded bars.
‘He keeps liking my Instagram posts even though Stephen and I are an item,’ a woman in a dress and heavy make-up said.
How are all these basic women able to attract men? That arsehole of a fitness instructor is...
secret-attic.co.uk
Come the Morning Stars by Conor O’Sullivan
They began in Neary’s. Christmas was two days away, and Dublin was brimming with shoppers marching along the damp streets. John Kelly climbed the tartan-carpeted staircase and removed his black wool overcoat after entering the lounge.
‘A coffee, please,’ he said to the barman who held a pint glass in his callused palm.
‘Are you sparing yourself?’
‘At least for another twenty minutes,’ he replied and glanced at a wood-encased wall clock.
‘One of the waiters will bring it over.’
John sat at a ...
Issuu
EWR in A New Ulster issue 91
The latest issue of A New Ulster featuring prose by Conor O'Sullivan
scarletleafreview.com
Conor O'Sullivan - These Fountains Shed Ink
Ursula Baxter parked her red Ford Focus between a station wagon and hatchback in the St Philip’s College staff car park. She cut the engine and applied make-up to her slim, wrinkled face while ...