Joey Dunlop voted Northern Ireland's greatest ever sports star

ROAD race legend Joey Dunlop has been voted Northern Ireland’s greatest ever sports star.

Twenty of Northern Ireland’s sporting greats were shortlisted in the Belfast Telegraph’s poll, and Dunlop was voted number one by the newspaper’s readers.

Footballer George Best was runner-up and golf’s Rory McIlroy third.

Dunlop achieved a record haul of 26 victories at the Isle of Man TT between 1977 and 2000, the year he died racing in Estonia.

The poll results were announced at the Belfast Telegraph’s Sports Awards ceremony on Monday night.

Dunlop’s daughter Donna McLean said: ‘It’s an absolute honour that 14 years later people still recognise him in the same high esteem as he was held when he was still with us.’