Neil Gallagher (Donegal footballer)

Neil Gallagher (born 1982/3) is an Irish Gaelic footballer who plays for Glenswilly and, formerly, for the Donegal county team (usually at midfield, from 2004 until his injury-enforced retirement in 2017).

For the other fellow, see Neil Gallagher (Louth footballer).
Neil Gallagher
Personal information
Irish name Niall Ó Gallachóir[1]
Sport Gaelic football
Position Midfield
Born (1992-08-18) August 18, 1992
Letterkenny, Ireland
Height 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Nickname Big Neil[2]
Occupation Technician
Club(s)
Years Club
?–
 Glenswilly
Club titles
Donegal titles 3
Inter-county(ies)
Years County
2004–2017
 Donegal
Inter-county titles
Ulster titles 3
All-Irelands 1
NFL 1
All Stars 2

He won two All Stars, one All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, three Ulster Senior Football Championships and one National Football League. He was team captain when Donegal won the National Football League title in 2007.

Playing career

Youth

Educated at St Eunan's College in Letterkenny, he warmed the bench during the College's 2000 McLarnon Cup victory.[3][4]

Club

Gallagher was part of the Glenswilly team that won the 2011 Donegal Senior Football Championship (his team's first County Championship at senior level). Glenswilly defeated Naomh Mícheál by 1-8 to 0-9 in the final.[5] He won his second Donegal Senior Football Championship with Glenswilly in 2013, scoring a goal in the final against Killybegs.[6] The team had a successful Ulster campaign, advancing to the final of the 2013 Ulster Senior Club Football Championship, where they lost to Ballinderry.[7][8]

He won a third Donegal SFC in 2016.

Inter-county

Gallagher was first called up to the senior team by Brian McEniff for winter training in 2003.[9] He made his senior debut for Donegal in 2004. That year his team made it to the Ulster final but were defeated by Armagh. 2005 was unsuccessful. Donegal reached the 2006 Ulster Senior Football Championship Final and he played in that match at Croke Park.[10]

In 2007, he was part of the Donegal team that won the county's first National Football League title. They defeated Mayo in the final.[11] He was the caption that day.[12]

Alongside Glenswilly teammate Ciaran Bonner, he was dropped by manager John Joe Doherty over a breach of discipline ahead of the 2009 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship qualifier game against Carlow.[13]

By 2011, he had no career and was presumed finished.[14] He was 28 years of age and a peripheral figure in manager Jim McGuinness's first season in charge.[15]

Then, quite suddenly, he became a linchpin of McGuinness's Donegal midfield, winning his first Ulster Senior Football Championship in 2011.[16]

He won his second Ulster SFC in 2012. Though he did not play in the final against Down, he featured in earlier rounds and contributed a point in the quarter-final victory over Derry.[17][18][19] He was then part of the Donegal team that advanced through the 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. The best performance of his career with Donegal came against Cork at Croke Park in the All-Ireland semi-final; indeed, it is widely regarded as one of the all-time best in team history.[14] He scored a point against Mayo in the 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final as Donegal claimed the Sam Maguire Cup.[20][21] He won an All Star and attended the Football Tour of New York.[22]

He also started for Donegal in the 2014 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final.

He won his third and final Ulster SFC in 2014.[23]

Under the management of McGuinness's successor, Rory Gallagher, he continued to feature for his county team. However, he was bedeviled by injuries. On Valentine's Day in 2017, he attended training at Convoy — it was upon the Convoy turf that he broke down for the final time and relinquished his status as an inter-county footballer.[14] Gallagher later described Gallagher as "very disappointed... He wanted to give it a go... He got the back re-scanned and tried to build it up".[14] He announced his retirement from inter-county football at the age of 33 on 20 February 2017.[24]

Business venture

In conjunction with teammate Michael Murphy, Gallagher opened the sports store "Michael Murphy Sports and Leisure" in Letterkenny in August 2014.[25]

Personal life

Less than a week after the 2014 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final, Gallagher attended the 2014 Ryder Cup in Perthshire, Scotland.[26]

Honours
Donegal
Glenswilly
Individual
gollark: I've got a really small TPLink one somewhere. It's basically just a USB-A connector with a small bit on the end. Probably terrible speed, but meh.
gollark: There are tiny USB WiFi things, just not Intel ones.
gollark: The weird part is that you can now commonly get devices with a theoretical wireless bandwidth faster than their wired bandwidth, since most stuff is still stuck on GbE.
gollark: Also reliability, since wireless stuff is often... well, not reliable.
gollark: That's no reason to make it worse.

References
  1. "Countdown to Croker: Donegal name 'team' for All-Ireland final". Donegal Daily. 20 September 2014. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  2. Craig, Frank (25 May 2019). "Murphy a 'once in a generation' player - Big Neil". Donegal News. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  3. "Twitter feed". Saint Eunan's College. EunansFootball Best of luck 2our past pupils who r in Donegal panel v Cork in All Ire Semi-Final on Sun @neilgerardgalla @murphm95 @AntoinMcFadden @Tommyk_91 @BrickMolloy @123kav @kevin_raff @gmacfadden14 @mdboyler24 +Mr McFadden #TheCollege
  4. Foley, Alan (11 September 2012). "Forward thinking McFadden". Donegal Democrat. Retrieved 11 September 2012. When McFadden was a Leaving Cert student in 2000, no St Eunan's team had won the competition, which is considered the undercard to the MacRory Cup in Ulster, since 1979. “It was always a massive thing in the school and they hadn't won it for years,” he recalls. “Rory Kavanagh was on that team and Neil Gallagher was a sub. Looking back, it was strange that it was even B football as the standard was very good.
  5. "Murphy magic proves key as Glenswilly secure first Donegal crown". Irish Independent. 3 October 2011. Retrieved 3 October 2011.
  6. "Murphy follows up Ireland heroics by firing Glenswilly to county glory". Irish Independent. 21 October 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  7. "Ballinderry 1-13 Glenswilly 2-06". RTÉ Sport. 1 December 2013. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
  8. "Live: Glenswilly v Ballinderry Shamrocks Ulster senior club final". Donegal Now. 1 December 2013. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
  9. Keys, Colm (5 November 2003). "Royals' seal of approval puts pressure on Boylan". Irish Independent. Retrieved 5 November 2003.
  10. "Donegal 0-09 1-09 Armagh". BBC Sport. 9 July 2006. Retrieved 9 July 2006.
  11. "Donegal win National League title". BBC Sport. 22 April 2007. Retrieved 11 August 2011.
  12. "Donegal achieve historic win - First national league title comes to county after victory over Mayo". Donegal Times. 25 April 2007. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015. Retrieved 25 April 2007.
  13. "Donegal duo dropped for discipline breach". RTÉ Sport. 2 July 2009. Retrieved 2 July 2009. Ciaran Bonner and Neil Gallagher have been dropped from the Donegal football panel for a breach of discipline ahead of Saturday’s All-Ireland qualifier against Carlow in Ballybofey.
  14. McNulty, Chris (21 February 2017). "Gallagher retirement a 'sad day' for Donegal". Irish Independent. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  15. McNulty, Chris (17 July 2015). "Monaghan's Corbett sees the 'magic' of Murphy and Gallagher". Donegal News. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  16. "Donegal 1–11 Derry 0-08". RTÉ Sport. 17 July 2011. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 17 July 2011.
  17. "Ulster Senior Football Final: Donegal 2-18 0-13 Down". BBC Sport. 22 July 2012. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
  18. "Tyrone 0-10 Donegal 0-12". RTÉ Sport. 30 June 2012. Archived from the original on 16 September 2012. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
  19. "Donegal 2-13 Derry 0-09". RTÉ Sport. 16 June 2012. Archived from the original on 20 June 2012. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
  20. "Live updates from the All-Ireland finals at Croke Park". RTÉ Sport. 23 September 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  21. "Donegal 2-11 Mayo 0-13". RTÉ Sport. 23 September 2012. Archived from the original on 29 March 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  22. McNulty, Chris (13 November 2012). "Replacement All-Star for Thompson". Donegal News. Retrieved 13 November 2012.
  23. "Donegal reverse 2013 result to claim Ulster football title". The42.ie. 20 July 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  24. "Donegal Midfielder Neil Gallagher to retire from inter-county football". Highland Radio. 20 February 2017. Archived from the original on 20 February 2017.
  25. Foley, Alan (15 August 2014). "Michael Murphy Sports and Leisure opens its doors in Letterkenny". Donegal Democrat. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  26. "Jimmy's still swinging matches at the Ryder Cup!". Donegal Daily. 26 September 2014. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  27. Heneghan, Conor (2015). "The nominations for the 2015 GAA/GPA Gaelic Football All-Stars have been announced". JOE.ie.
  28. McNulty, Chris (10 September 2012). "Neil Gallagher – August 2012 Donegal News Sports Personality winner". Donegal News. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
Sporting positions
Preceded by
Christy Toye		 Donegal Senior Captain
2007 - 2008		 Succeeded by
Kevin Cassidy
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