Sport + Life

I’m half-Welsh. My dad hails from cwmbran. And so presenting on Sky Sports News as Wales wound their way in magical fashion to the semi-finals of Euro 2016 is a treasured memory. A special summer - counterbalanced by the fact that I’m half-English and Wayne’s Rooney’s Three Lions were dumped out by Iceland in ignominious fashion. Ouch. That still hurts. But it was also a special time for the country Wales knocked out in the last-16 stage: Northern Ireland. It was their first and only, to date, time at The European Championship. Paul Gilmour was a firsthand bystander to the squad’s exploits in qualifying and then in the tournament itself in France. He was the dedicated team reporter for Sky Sports News. It would have been a memorable assignment for any football person. But particularly poignant for Paul who hails from Northern Ireland. He wasn’t born when his country qualified for the 1958 and 1982 World Cups. He was barely born when they made the World Cup in Mexico in 86. But in 2016 he was front and centre