The COVID-19 pandemic in the Republic of Ireland has had a significant impact on the conduct of sports, affecting both competitive sports leagues and tournaments and recreational sports.
In March 2021, eir Sport's owner Eir announced it would not be bidding for the rights to sports events, as the closure of pubs in particular had made its business model difficult to sustain. However, eir Sport did vow to see out their existing contracts, including showing games from the 2021 National Hurling League and 2021 National Football League.
Background Countless sporting events were affected by the arrival of the virus on 29 February 2020. Following the Taoiseach's 12 March announcement from Washington, the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) and Football Association of Ireland (FAI) all immediately announced the two-week suspension of games.
On 19 June, the Government of Ireland announced that all sporting activity in Ireland could resume from 29 June. A fund of €70 million was announced by the Department of Sport to get sport in Ireland restarted.
By late July, small numbers of spectators were permitted into games on both sides of the border.
On 7 August, TDs—including Minister of State for Financial Services, Credit Unions and Insurance Seán Fleming and Minister of State for Overseas Development Aid and Diaspora Colm Brophy—called for all sporting fixtures and events in Kildare, Laois and Offaly to be cancelled after a significant increase of COVID-19 cases in the three counties.
Under new restrictions announced by the Government of Ireland on 18 August, all sporting events had to take place behind closed doors again. Taoiseach Micheál Martin announced that all spectators from sporting events would be banned until at least 13 September.
As a second and third wave of COVID-19 rapidly arrived in the country from October and December 2020, Level 5 lockdown restrictions were reimposed nationally, which saw elite and professional sports continue behind closed doors, with no other matches or events permitted to take place, while all gyms, leisure centres, swimming pools, tennis and golf clubs closed at 6pm on New Year's Eve.
On 8 January 2021, the government announced it would be extending its Sports Capital Grant funding deadline for applications until 1 March.
Under a new plan for easing Level 5 restrictions announced by the Government on 30 March, elite-level senior GAA matches and training could resume from 19 April. From 26 April, outdoor sports facilities (such as pitches, golf courses and tennis courts) could reopen and underage non-contact outdoor training in pods of 15 could recommence for all exercise activities that could be delivered outdoors including dance.
Impact by sport Ball sports Gaelic games of football and hurling
On 13 March 2020, Minister for Health Simon Harris said people returning from Spain or Italy would have to "not quite self-isolate" but "restrict their movements" upon returning to Ireland; this affected Tipperary, the reigning All-Ireland Hurling Champions, who had flown in advance to the Costa Blanca in Spain for a training camp.
On 15 March, footballer Dr Jack McCaffrey issued a video message thanking the public for their co-operation, which was relayed by Dublin GAA and media outlets—McCaffrey noting that he had shaven his beard to protect his patients. On 17 March, the GAA confirmed that the opening fixture of the 2020 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, due to have taken place at Gaelic Park in The Bronx on 3 May, had been postponed. Also that day, Michael Carton, the former Dublin hurler who won the 2013 Leinster Senior Hurling Championship, revealed he had been in hospital since the previous weekend after testing positive for COVID-19.
Former Offaly county football team manager, Fr Tom Scully, who led the team to the 1969 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final, died in Dublin of COVID-19 on the morning of 7 April.
Former Dublin footballer Brian Stynes was stranded in Sydney, barred from leaving his hotel. On 14 April (the day after the Easter Monday public holiday), the GAA announced that—following the government's Good Friday three-week extension of restrictions—the 2020 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and 2020 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship would be postponed "until further clarity on the current situation is available. However, it is the Association's view that it is highly unlikely these will be rescheduled any time before the beginning of July, at the earliest".
On 29 April, the administrator Noel Walsh (i.e. "Mr Clare Football") died of pneumonia resulting from COVID-19.
On 6 May, the GAA announced that it expected no inter-county matches would take place until October at the earliest and asked all counties to cease preparations until 20 July, while unveiling a COVID-19 Advisory Group whose members included Pat O'Neill.
Inter-county games resumed in October, with the 2020 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and the 2020 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship completed in December.
2021 brought sanctions after numerous breaches of the GAA's ban on collective training, as well as Government Level 5 restrictions. Among the football team managers suspended were Dessie Farrell (Dublin), Ronan McCarthy (Cork) and Séamus McEnaney (Monaghan).
On 10 February 2021, the GAA announced that there would be no county team activity (i.e. training or games) until 4 April (Easter Sunday) at the earliest.
Under a new plan for easing restrictions announced by the Government on 30 March, GAA senior inter-county teams could return to collective inter-county training from 19 April.
On 2 June, the GAA confirmed that 100 spectators would be allowed to attend club and inter-county matches in Ireland from Monday 7 June, with a higher total of 200 permitted in grounds with a minimum capacity of 5,000.
On 30 July, it was confirmed that 40,000 fans would be allowed to attend the All-Ireland finals and semi-finals in Croke Park while Ireland's World Cup qualifiers in September were set to be played before a crowd of 25,000.
Under a plan for easing most COVID-19 restrictions by 22 October announced by the Government on 31 August, sports stadiums could return to 50% capacity and outdoor events could be permitted to operate at 75% capacity from 6 September, while all further restrictions for both indoor and outdoor sports events could be eased on 22 October. The GAA confirmed on 1 September that an additional 1,150 tickets would be available with 41,150 people allowed to attend the 2021 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final on 11 September.
After a sudden rise in COVID-19 figures, on 19 October, the Government published a revised plan for the easing of restrictions on 22 October, with sporting venues allowed to operate at 100% capacity.
Cricket In January 2021, the second match of Ireland's One Day International series against the United Arab Emirates was postponed for six days due to an outbreak of COVID-19 within the UAE team. Shortly afterwards, the match was postponed for a second time when four more UAE players tested positive for COVID-19.
On 5 March 2021, Ruhan Pretorius tested positive for COVID-19 in Chittagong while playing for the Ireland Wolves cricket team in Bangladesh in 2020–21. The match was suspended. His test was later found to be a false positive.
Golf On 30 March 2020, the European Tour confirmed that golf's Irish Open, down for Mount Juliet between 28 and 31 May, would be postponed. On 14 August, the European Tour announced that the 2020 Irish Open would be held behind closed doors at Galgorm Castle the following month; this allowed for the looser quarantine rules in use north of the border at the time as 14 days was a requirement in the south.
On 7 April, the sold-out J. P. McManus Pro-Am at Adare Manor, and an important charity fundraiser for Ireland's midwest region, was postponed until 2021.
Rugby On 12 March 2020, the 2019–20 Pro14 was suspended indefinitely.
Ireland's final two Six Nations rugby fixtures against Italy and France were postponed. The IRFU postponed the Italy game, scheduled for 7 March, on 26 February. after it met with Minister for Health Simon Harris for an hour at the Department of Health. In spite of this, thousands of Italian fans, who were permitted to fly into Dublin on the weekend of the game, were not checked at Dublin Airport for signs of the disease. On 20 March, the IRFU announced pay deferrals of between 10% and 50% for staff, including each of its professional players.
On 9 June, a Pro14 Board meeting agreed on 22 August as a target date for resumption of the suspended competition in a truncated format that would reduce the regular season from 21 to 15 rounds of fixtures, while Ulster's postponed Round 13 fixture against Benetton was recorded as a 0–0 draw (as was one other fixture, with the four teams involved being awarded two points each). Leinster and Ulster contested the rescheduled 2020 Pro14 Grand Final at the Aviva Stadium on 12 September, with Leinster winning a third consecutive title.
5 August brought the announcement of the rescheduled completion of the Six Nations that October, though the Six Nations Under 20s Championship would go without a winner; Ireland had been leading that competition, with three victories from their three games, before the pandemic brought play to a halt. Ireland completed the 2020 Six Nations with a win against Italy in Dublin on 24 October and a loss against France in Paris on 31 October.
On 6 October, Munster Rugby suspended training and cancelled its weekly press conference ahead of the team's 2020–21 Pro14 Round 2 game against Edinburgh at Thomond Park. Munster announced that one player had tested positive for COVID-19, with six others self-isolating after being deemed close contacts; this was the first instance of a senior player within Irish rugby testing positive for COVID-19, although cases in the Munster and Ulster Academies had previously occurred. Munster stated that the player, who was asymptomatic, had not travelled to Llanelli for the Round 1 fixture, a victory against Scarlets. Two days later, on 8 October, Munster announced that another player (linked to the first case) had tested positive for COVID-19 and that, separately, the virus had been detected in another of its academy players. However, Munster returned to training on 9 October.
Connacht's Round 4 game against Benetton in Galway was postponed after COVID-19 struck the Italian team; Munster's Round 5 game against the same team in Treviso followed suit. Connacht's Round 5 game away to Dragons was also postponed due to an outbreak of COVID-19 within the squad of the Newport-based team. Leinster's Round 8 game away to Scarlets was postponed due to an outbreak of COVID-19 within the squad of their Welsh opponents, while Connacht's home fixture against Ospreys in the same round was postponed due to a player for the Swansea-based team testing positive for COVID-19.
The Round 9 meeting of Munster and Leinster at Thomond Park, scheduled for 26 December, was postponed two days previously due to COVID-19. However, Leinster confirmed that tests it carried out on all staff and players returned negative results. Then, on 29 December, Leinster Rugby confirmed that two of its players had received positive results for COVID-19 following tests carried out the previous day, that several others were self-isolating after being deemed close contacts, but that the rest of the team would return to training.
Former Ireland international Rob Kearney cited escape from the COVID-19 pandemic as influencing his decision to leave Leinster after 15 years to join the Western Force in late 2020; Kearney quarantined with his fiancée in a Brisbane hotel in late December before arriving in Perth in January 2021.