www.gaa.ie
Around since 1884, the GAA is one of our oldest sporting organisations. Its website is easy to navigate, even if a little over the top in the use of green. (Yeah, I know there are 40 shades, but . . . ). The news section is strong and up to date and the history section is useful for anyone doing a project on Gaelic games. Particularly good is the 360 degree view of Croke Park which allows visitors to keep up to date with its huge redevelopment project. It has a "Results since 1884" section, but any I looked for were not available.
www.fai.ie
The Football Association of Ireland's homepage does something that very few sites bother with, and is to be commended for doing so: it gives its address, phone, fax and e-mail details. Its news service is poor however. Clicking on National League results, for instance, gives you all the scores from last year, but none at all for this year. The history section is excellent though, and a good reference point for anyone writing anything on Irish football. Many will want to use the site for ticket information for upcoming internationals.
www.irfu.ie
With Trinity College having a rugby club since 1854, the game has the longest organised sporting history in Ireland. Its Internet news service is bang-up-to-date with the latest scores, fixtures and match reports. The site also looks good and is easy to use. As you might expect from the IRFU, it is the most commercial of the main Irish sporting body's sites: as well as being able to buy a range of clothing here, you can also book a hotel room. The best aspect of this site is a very comprehensive database search.
www.athleticsireland.ie
The Athletics Ireland site is very basic in its design, and features a couple of "This page is being updated" sections, but its fixtures list for domestic and international meets is good. The news area is hit and miss; when last checked it was congratulating Sonia O'Sullivan on her 5,000 metres Olympics silver, but also still wishing her luck in the 10,000! However, the section of links to individual athletic clubs and other sporting sites, an area many other organisations fall down on, is good.
www.setanta.com
For a mix of all of the above, you could try Setanta. Launched in June of this year, it claims to be Ireland's premier sports website (though ireland.com/sports may have something to say about that). Aiming to cover all sports events of interest to Irish fans around the world, it brings results of all main sporting events as they happen, using top-name sports stars to write for them. (Liam Brady on the recent Irish soccer performance in Portugal, for instance). The site's live audio of Celtic matches is a major attraction.
