IN CASE YOU didn’t realise and have somehow ended up in work wondering where everyone is, today is St. Patrick’s Day and what better way to celebrate than to look back at some of the moments when sportspeople and teams made you feel ridiculously proud to be Irish.

This is obviously not a definitive list — the two lads who blagged their way into the Super Bowl didn’t make it — but we felt 17 was a good number for the day that’s in it.

Let us know what else you’d include in the comments below but, in no particular order…

1. When Ray Houghton put the ball in the back of the England net

2. When Dave O’Leary kept his nerve as the nation held its breath

3. When Ireland beat the Italians in New York

4. When Steph Roche rubbed shoulders with the best in the world

5. When Ronan O’Gara dropped at goal with a Grand Slam at stake

6. When Ireland thrashed ‘the old enemy’ at Croke Park

7. When the women’s rugby team won their first Grand Slam

8. When Ireland hosted the Special Olympics World Games

9. When the cricket team announced themselves on the world stage

10. When Sonia O’Sullivan became champion of the world

11. When Eamon Coughlan told Dmitriy Dmitriyev ’watch me go’

12. When Barry McGuigan won a world title for all the people of Ireland

13. When Katie Taylor took gold at the London Olympic Games

14. When Pádraig Harrington won his first Major title

15. When Rory McIlory ripped up the record books at the US Open

16. When Ken Doherty became World Snooker Champion

17. When we watched the world fall in love with Gaelic Games in 2014

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