One of the perks of journalism is that occasionally, you get to meet your heroes. 

And as a native of Co Wexford, Billy Walsh is one of my heroes. 

From Wolfe Tone Villas, with Wexford Park in his backyard, Walsh has achieved success on a global stage as a boxing coach, nurtured seven Olympic medalists during his time with Ireland, before relocating to Colorado a decade ago to transform the US amateur boxing team.

He is Wexford to the core. Yet, when I interviewed him for the latest series of Sports Matters, a podcast series sponsored by the law firm Whitney Moore, what struck me was his outward view. 

“If you stay in your own little backyard, you don’t expand, you don’t get much better,” Walsh told me.

His travel schedule backs up the point. He did the interview from Wexford after a stop in Kazakhstan and ahead of another return to Colorado Springs.

Even his own decision to cut ties with Irish boxing says a lot about the man and his philosophy.

“It was huge, to be honest, and it was frightening in many ways. I didn’t emigrate from home at 18 or 19. I was actually 52 when I emigrated,” he says.

“And it was a bit daunting, you’re going, this little kid from – if I look back on my own life, growing up in Wolfe Tone Villas, in the shadows maybe of Wexford Park.”

Through both series of Sports Matters, a key theme was the intersection between sports and business.

Walsh, however, brought it back to the person. 

“For me, it’s the person first,” he says. “If we can’t fix the things within the person, then we’re not going to be really able to fix the things within the ring. So, for me, it’s the person. We are all human beings, so we’re actually connecting with the human being first, and then finding where it goes and where their needs are. And how to make those better, and can we do it?”

Walsh was not the only person on the series who brought deep insights, and I want to thank all the guests who participated, as well as Whitney Moore. 

Here are some of the key themes and learnings from the series. 

See it. Support it. Change it

Visibility matters. As Niamh Tallon from Her Sport and Lidl’s Eimear O’Sullivan point out, real change in women’s sport comes when girls see what’s possible – on the pitch, in the media, and in their own communities.

Tallon is the co-founder and CEO of Her Sport, a digital media platform dedicated to women’s sport and to advocating for equality across the sporting ecosystem. 

Eimear O’Sullivan, meanwhile, is corporate affairs director at Lidl Ireland and Northern Ireland, and oversees one of the country’s most prominent and sustained corporate partnerships in women’s sport, the company’s nearly decade-long sponsorship of Ladies’ Gaelic football.

The way they see it, progress is happening, but not evenly. Many girls still drop out too soon, and basic facilities aren’t always there. What makes the difference is genuine support, not slogans – giving women’s sport the space, coverage and respect it deserves. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s equal opportunity that feels normal, not exceptional.

Leave ego at the door

Michael Kearney has lived multiple careers – farmer, entrepreneur, coach, and Ireland rugby team manager – but his guiding principle is simple: Stress is meant to be solved, not suffered. “I think my way of dealing with stress would be to look and examine exactly what the stress is… and then if I can deal with that stress and solve it, I will do it pretty well straightaway,” he told me.

Kearney built and sold successful businesses, including Snap Printing and Home Instead, before turning to rugby. He started at Lansdowne FC, eventually becoming director of rugby, president, and chair, before moving into Leinster Rugby’s under-20 and A teams, and later managing the national squad during one of its most successful eras. Working with coaches like Joe Schmidt and Andy Farrell, he emphasises culture over credentials: “You win with culture, not just with talent,” he explains.

Culture is the real competitive edge

Talking to Bernard Brogan, it’s clear that winning – in sport or business – comes down to culture for him too. Skill gets you started; behaviour keeps you performing. The former Dublin star has taken the principles that shaped six All-Irelands and turned them into lessons for the workplace: honest feedback, shared purpose, and connection. Through his companies, Legacy Communications and PepTalk, Brogan argues that performance is about building trust and measuring what really matters. Medals fade, but culture, when done right, continues to deliver.

“Sustaining high performance is equal to capability multiplied by behaviours,” he says, citing a concept employed in the Dublin camp by teammate Paul Flynn.

“You might be the most talented individual but you might have a certain way to do things. You might have a certain ego… it mightn’t fit into that kind of behaviours that leadership is looking for.”

That applies on the pitch, but also in business. 

“When I look at a team… the last thing we did before our five-in-a-row, we did a connection session to get to know people,” he says.

Clubs are businesses

Emma Richmond, managing partner at Whitney Moore and a kids’ hockey coach, knows sport from both the legal and grassroots sides. She stresses that local clubs aren’t just fun – they’re small businesses with responsibilities. “If you get those strong as a foundation, the rest of the club will follow and thrive,” she says. From safeguarding and data protection to finances and succession planning, Richmond argues that clear policies and structures keep clubs safe and sustainable. 

On safeguarding, she notes: “They shouldn’t be setting foot on a pitch… unless they have completed their safeguarding.” Volunteers, committees, and trustees need guidance to navigate risks and responsibilities, but when done right, good governance helps clubs grow, protect their members, and foster thriving communities. 

Richmond’s point is clear: Strong rules and structures are the backbone that allows local sport to flourish for everyone involved.

Build careers, not deals

David McHugh built Line Up Sports on relationships, trust, and understanding athletes beyond their performance. Rejecting the traditional “agent” label, he focused on long-term career development for talents like the O’Donovan brothers and Kellie Harrington, while helping brands align with athletes for meaningful sponsorships. After selling his firm to global agency Wasserman, he navigates a new role as an employee, adapting to scale and corporate structures. 

“I would certainly always say to people I’m not an agent,” he says in this episode of Sports Matters, a podcast series sponsored by the law firm Whitney Moore. 

“We’re an agency that supports talents, brands and rights holders. We traditionally would be recognised in the traditional sense as being agents, but it’s always a term I steered away from.”

It’s not just a matter of semantics. 

McHugh’s philosophy is that sport is a relationship business – one that sits at the intersection of performance, personality and commercial opportunity.

Elsewhere last week…

Thomas had a two-part deep dive on the tentative green hydrogen industry, which is touted as a vector to transform Ireland’s large renewable energy potential into an export commodity. From the hype surrounding German plans to source this green fuel all over the world one year ago, to the reality check caused by the technological and financial challenges involved, it is a revealing read on the opportunities and challenges facing Ireland’s energy system.

The collapse of Fastway Couriers into receivership placed hundreds of jobs at risk on Tuesday. Tom had the story and revealed tetchy correspondence between the troubled company and its rival An Post over competitive practices in the parcel delivery industry.

There has been growing talk of an AI bubble and Ronan is uniquely placed to discuss this risk as both an AI professional and an investor. On Wednesday, he looked at the potential winners and losers and explained why the bubble nature of AI investment makes it both risky to be involved – and risky not to be.