Sonia O’Sullivan: On a panel with Roy Keane and Jimmy Barry-Murphy you don’t expect to discuss losing

When you’re part of a sporting panel with the likes of Roy Keane and Jimmy Barry-Murphy, down on our own home patch in Cork, you don’t expect the conversation to turn towards losing. But maybe this is what’s helped shape all sporting careers, especially in terms of how you react to it.

It was one of the things that came to light last Thursday evening, at the Rochestown Park Hotel, during a celebration of 50 years of the Irish Guide Dogs. This has been a charity close to Roy’s heart for a long time, and some of those in attendance have been enjoying independent living for many years now thanks in part to the dogs that are bred, raised and trained out of the Irish Guide Dogs centre in Bishopstown.