New Canaan on Great Irish Athletes

St. Patrick’s Day is almost here and New Canaan Patch set out to mark the occasion by talking to some locals around town.

Instead of gathering up the usual lists of shepherd’s pie recipes, favorite barmen and hangover cures (we figure you might tackle those last two, Conrad), we put this question to our interviewees: Who is the greatest Irish athlete of all time?

As a third-generation American with a west Cork surname, I had some idea of what might have been said. After all, two standout Irish-American athletes now call New Canaan home: Terry Hanratty of the NFL and Pat Garrity of the NBA. Both men spent their college careers at the University of Notre Dame as Fighting Irish.

On the Irish-Irish side, the answers may have ranged from soccer standouts Georgie Best or Roy Keane to Olympic runners Sonia O’Sullivan or Ron Delaney. On the Irish-American side, the answers may have included Tom Brady, Jack Dempsey or Ben Hogan.

May have.

What we discovered during our interviews was something different (see video).

As always, Robbie and Lorenzo at Joe’s Pizza had some notable insights, and a sincere “Thank you” goes out to the guys at Forest Street Deli, Vicki from Stepping Stones Marble & Granite LLC and our other interview subjects (including a NCHS football coach) for being such good sports.

(Which apparently is more than they can say for the Irish. Click play.)