Seán O'Neill

This article is about the Gaelic footballer. For the Irish hurler, see Seán O'Neill (hurler).

Seán O'Neill
Personal information
Irish name	Seán Ó Néill
Sport	Gaelic football
Position	Left wing-forward
Born	Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Club(s)
Years	Club
1950s-1970s	John Mitchel
Club titles
Down titles	4
Ulster titles	0
All-Ireland Titles	0
College titles
Sigerson titles	2
Inter-county(ies)
Years	County	Apps (scores)
1959-1975	Down	17–125
Inter-county titles
Ulster titles	8
All-Irelands	3
NFL	3
All Stars	6

Seán O'Neill (born 1938, Newry) is a former Irish sportsperson. He played Gaelic football with his local club John Mitchel and was a member of the Down senior inter-county team from the 1950s until the 1960s. O'Neill is one of only four Down players to win three All-Ireland titles. He is regarded as one of the greatest players of all-time.

Career

O'Neill (back row; fifth from left) with the 1958 Queens University Belfast Sigerson Cup winning side

O'Neill is regarded as one of Gaelic football's outstanding forwards, scoring 85 goals and over 500 points for Down senior football team, and was a major figure in the county’s All-Ireland victories of 1960, 1961 and 1968. O'Neill's credits include eight Ulster senior football medals and eight Railway Cup medals in 1960, 1963 to 1966, 1968, 1970 and 1971. He won three National League medals, in 1960, 1962 and 1968, as well as six All Star awards.^[1]^[2] Other honours include a Sigerson Cup medal with the Queen's University of Belfast in 1958, whom he later coached to further wins. He played club football with John Mitchel GFC Newry, winning the Down Senior Football Championship in 1960, 1964, 1967 and 1968. He also won the Down Minor Championship with Newry Mitchels in 1956 - the year the club was formed. His brother Kevin won an all Ireland with down in the 1960s.

Along with Joe Lennon, Dan McCartan and Paddy Doherty he was one of four Down men who won all three All-Ireland medals in the 1960s.^[3]

Later life

O'Neill was the Down minor team coach, winning the 1977 All-Ireland Minor Football Championship.^[4]

Sean coached the Queen's University Belfast senior team in the early 1980s. As coach, he won the Sigerson Cup in 1982 and the Ryan Cup in 1984 and 1985.

In 1984, the Gaelic Athletic Association centenary year he was honoured by being named on their Football Team of the Century. In 2000 he was again honoured by the GAA by being named on their Gaelic Football Team of the Millennium.

O'Neill is a solicitor by profession.

Honours

Railway Cup (8) 1960 1963 1964 1965 1966 1968 1970 1971
Ulster Senior Football Championship (8) 1959 1960 1961 1963 1965 1966 1968 1971
Dr Lagan Cup (5) 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964
Dr McKenna Cup (4) 1959 1961 1964 1972
Cú Chulainn Awards (4) 1963 1964 1965 1967
Down Senior Football Championship (4) 1960 1964 1967 1968
All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (3) 1960 1961 1968
National Football League Division 1 (3) 1960 1962 1968
GAA GPA All Stars Awards (2) 1971 1972
Sigerson Cup (2) 1958 1964
Down Division 1 Football League (2) 1965 1968
Texaco Footballer of the Year (1) 1968

Manager

Ulster Minor Football Championship (2) 1977 1979
All-Ireland Minor Football Championship (1) 1977

Teams

Down – 1960 National Football League Champions (1st title)

1 E. McKay 2 G. Lavery 3 L. Murphy 4 P. Rice 5 K. Mussen 6 D. McCartan (c) 7 K.O'Neill 8 P.J. McElroy 9 P. O'Hagan 10 S. O'Neill 11 J. Carey 12 P. Doherty 13 A. Hadden 14 J. McCartan 15 B. Morgan Sub used K. Denvir E. Lundy L. Murphy

Down – 1960 All-Ireland Senior Football Champions (1st title)

1 E. McKay 2 G. Lavery 3 L. Murphy 4 P. Rice 5 K. Mussen 6 D. McCartan (c) 7 K.O'Neill 8 J. Lennon 9 J. Carey 10 S. O'Neill 11 J. McCartan 12 P. Doherty 13 T. Hadden 14 P. O'Hagan 15 B. Morgan Sub used K. Denvir for J. Lennon

Down – 1961 All-Ireland Senior Football Champions (2nd title)

1 E. McKay 2 G. Lavery 3 L. Murphy 4 P. Rice 5 P. O'Hagan 6 D. McCartan 7 J. Smith 8 J. Carey 9 J. Lennon 10 S. O'Neill 11 J. McCartan 12 P. Doherty (c) 13 T. Hadden 14 P. J. McIlroy 15 B. Morgan Subs used K.O'Neill for P. Rice P. Rice for G. Lavery

Down – 1968 National Football League Champions (3rd title)

1 D. Kelly 2 B. Sloan 3 D. McCartan 4 T. O'Hare 5 R. McConville 6 L. Powell 7 J. Lennon (c) 8 J. Milligan 9 C. McAlarney 10 M. Cole 11 P. Doherty 12 J. Murphy 13 P. Rooney 14 S. O'Neill 15 J. Purdy Subs used R. Murphy

Down – 1968 All-Ireland Senior Football Champions (3rd title)

1 D. Kelly 2 B. Sloan 3 D. McCartan 4 T. O'Hare 5 R. McConville 6 W. Doyle 7 J. Lennon (c) 8 J. Milligan 9 C. McAlarney 10 M.Cole 11 P. Doherty 12 J. Murphy 13 P. Rooney 14 S. O'Neill 15 J. Purdy Subs used L. Powell for J. Lennon G. Glynn for L. Powell Subs not used H. McGrath R. Murphy V. Kane Manager G. Brown

Down – 1977 All-Ireland Minor Football Champions (1st title)

1 P. Donnan 2 S. McNulty 3 A. McAufield 4 Sean Brunker 5 P. O'Rourke 6 M. Sands 7 B. McGovern 8 J. McCartan (c) 9 P. Kennedy 10 E. Toner 11 A. Rodgers 12 M. McCann 13 T. Bradley 14 B. Loughran 15 J. Digney Subs used E. McGivern For T. Bradley F. Rooney For Brendan McGovern Manager S. O'Neill

1971 All Star Gaelic Football Team

1 P. J. Smyth 2 J. Carey 3 J. Cosgrove 4 D. O'Sullivan 5 E. Mulligan 6 N. Clavin 7 P. Reynolds 8 L. Sammon 9 W. Bryan 10 T. McTague 11 R. Cummins 12 M. Kearns 13 A. McCallin 14 S. O'Neill 15 S. Leydon

1972 All Star Gaelic Football Team

1 M. Furlong 2 M. Ryan 3 P. McCormack 4 D. O'Sullivan 5 B. McEniff 6 T. J. Gilmore 7 K. J. O'Sullivan 8 W. Bryan 9 M. O'Connell 10 J. Cooney 11 K. Kilmurray 12 T. McTague 13 M. Freyne 14 S. O'Neill 15 P. Moriarty

Texaco Footballer of the Year

Gaelic football – Team of the Century

All-Ireland winners

Non All-Ireland winners

Aidan Brady (Goalkeeper)

Willie Casey Eddie Boyle John McKnight (Full-backs)

Gerry O'Reilly Gerry O'Malley Seán Quinn (Half-backs)

Jim McKeever Tommy Murphy (Midfielders)

Sean O'Connell Packy McGarty Michael Kearins (Half-forwards)

Charlie Gallagher Willie McGee Dinny Allen (Full-forwards)

Gaelic football – Team of the Millennium

1 Dan O'Keeffe 2 Seán Flanagan 3 Joe Keohane 4 Enda Colleran 5 Martin O'Connell 6 John Joe O'Reilly 7 Seán Murphy 8 Mick O'Connell 9 Tommy Murphy 10 Pat Spillane 11 Seán Purcell 12 Seán O'Neill 13 Kevin Heffernan 14 Tommy Langan 15 Mikey Sheehy

References

↑ Football All Stars 70's | Cumann Lúthchleas Gael Official Website - GAA.ie
↑ Football All Stars 60's | Cumann Lúthchleas Gael Official Website - GAA.ie
↑ McGrath, Pete (10 October 2008). "Greatest ever corner back?". Gaelic Life. p. 26.
↑ Hoganstand.com - GAA Football & Hurling

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 3/11/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.