Johnny Sexton has overtaken Katie Taylor to top Ireland’s most admired Irish sports stars list, a position the Bray boxer has held since 2016, while Ryan Tubridy retains his number 1 standing as Ireland’s most admired TV / Radio personality, according to sponsorship advisors ONSIDE.
Sexton’s newly crowned status as Ireland’s Most Admired Sports Personality sees the Ireland and Leinster rugby superstar selected by 22% of Irish adults as their favourite, a level of prominence last achieved by his former teammate Brian O’Driscoll on his retirement from international rugby in 2014. Rugby overtakes soccer with the most personalities named in this year’s ONSIDE list of stars. Sexton was joined by Paul O’Connell, Brian O’Driscoll and Ronan O’Gara in the Top 10, closely followed by Bundee Aki and Peter O’Mahoney also showing strong movement in the Top 20 sports personalities.
According to John Trainor, Founder and CEO of ONSIDE: “as Johnny Sexton closed out his on-field rugby career at the Rugby World Cup, the Leinster and Ireland icon had built an avid fan base of almost 850,000 Irish adults that rate him as their number 1 Irish sports star this year. Katie Taylor heads into her rematch with Chantelle Cameron at the 3Arena later this month 7% behind Sexton in second place, a significant 10% dip in her result since 2021. Meanwhile, having captained the Irish Women’s Football Team to their first ever World Cup this summer, Katie McCabe moved up 22 places and into the Top 10. Other female sports stars scoring strongly in the star tracker included Rachel Blackmore, Kellie Harrington, Sonia O’Sullivan and Leona Maguire.”
Other notable results also included Ryder Cup heroes Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry both standing among the Top 10 sports stars, while Kerry footballer David Clifford moved up 20 places to 13th
Vodafone commanded a strong lead as the Irish public’s most admired sports sponsors in general in the third quarter of 2023, while Aldi, with their ambassadors Paul O’Connell and James Ryan, were favourites in terms of best practice by businesses aligning with specific Irish sports personalities. Other brands associated with rugby in general, or specifically with Irish rugby players, that also ranked highly in the latest ONSIDE research included Guinness, Bank of Ireland, Lucozade Sport and Aviva.
Outside of sport, the ONSIDE STAR TRACK 2023 also found that Ryan Tubridy retained his number 1 status as the most admired television or radio personality in Ireland, with Tommy Tiernan, Claire Byrne, Graham Norton and Joe Brolly making up the chasing pack. Patrick Kielty entered the Top 10 alongside established broadcast personalities including Today FM’s Ian Dempsey and Newstalk’s Pat Kenny.
U2 lead singer Bono has again topped the chart in the research category regarding most admired Irish music and live entertainment stars, with Sinéad O’Connor, Daniel O’Donnell, Hozier and Dermot Kennedy making up the Top 5.
Trainor concludes: “Businesses inking new deals with Irish stars in 2024 have an exciting array of next generation rising stars to select from including Olympic and Paralympic games hopefuls such as Rashidat Adeleke, to a next generation of Irish football stars such as Evan Ferguson and Caoimhin Kelleher. The key to success will be how well the brands activate their connection with the Irish stars in a fully invested way”.
