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Joe Brolly

Joe Brolly, taken at a 2011 event to promote the Irish language
Personal information
Sport	Gaelic football
Position	Corner forward
Born	(1969-06-25) 25 June 1969 (age 55) Dungiven, Northern Ireland
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Occupation	Barrister, columnist, television pundit
Club(s)
Years	Club
?–?	Dungiven St Brigid's
Club titles
Derry titles	2
Ulster titles	1
Inter-county(ies)
Years	County
1990–2001	Derry
Inter-county titles
Ulster titles	2
All-Irelands	1
NFL	4
All Stars	2

Joe Brolly (born Padraig Joseph Brolly; 25 June 1969) is an Irish Gaelic football analyst, former player and barrister who played at senior level for the Derry county team. He is from Dungiven.

Brolly played for Derry in the 1990s and early 2000s and was part of the county's only All-Ireland Senior Football Championship winning side in 1993. He also won two Ulster Senior Football Championships and four National League titles.

Brolly played club football for St Canice's Dungiven for most of his career, before transferring to St Brigid's GAC in Belfast.

He usually played as right corner forward and was renowned for his accurate point-taking, goal-scoring ability, pace and ability to take on opponents. He was also known for his goal celebration of blowing kisses to the crowd, and had his nose broken twice during his career immediately after scoring goals.

After retiring as a player, Brolly fashioned a niche for himself in television punditry, most prominently with RTÉ on The Sunday Game until 2019.

Early and family life

Brolly is the son of noted traditional singer and Limavady Sinn Féin councillor Anne Brolly. His father Francie, also a traditional musician, played Gaelic football for Derry in the 1960s, and was later a Sinn Féin councillor and MLA.

Brolly boarded in Saint Patrick's Grammar School, Armagh where he played basketball for Ireland as a schoolboy. After school he progressed to Trinity College Dublin to read law graduating in 1991 with a Bachelors in Laws degree, before doing a postgraduate course at Queen's University Belfast. He was a prominent member of the Dublin University Central Athletic Club (DUCAC) in his Trinity days, and became a member of the student executive.

Brolly's first wife was Emma-Rose McCann from Ballymena, daughter of the famous Jack McCann, historian, raconteur and proprietor of Jack McCann & Son Solicitors, whom he met in Trinity where she studied French and English literature before qualifying as a solicitor. Emma is a first cousin of the actor Liam Neeson. The couple have five children. Brolly is now married to podcaster and radio presenter Laurita Blewitt. They married at the Ice House Hotel in County Mayo in August 2022.

Joe Brolly is a first cousin of Derry player Liam Hinphey and Monaghan player Vincent Corey, and second cousin to Tyrone footballers Colm and Plunkett Donaghy.

Playing career

County

Brolly made his Derry Senior debut against Cavan in the 1990 National League. In 1993 he was part of the Derry side that won the Ulster Championship and the county's first All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. His All Stars Award recognition surprisingly came in the relatively barren years of 1996 and 1997. He was top scorer in the 1997 Ulster Championship with 3–15 (24 points). Brolly added a second Ulster Senior Football Championship in 1998, in the final of which he scored the clinching goal in the last minute. Derry won the National Football League four times in a nine-year period from 1992 to 2000 (1992, 1995, 1996, 2000), with Brolly being part of all four. Brolly and Derry finished runners-up to Offaly in the 1998 National League decider.

Club

As a 21-year-old, Brolly was part of Dungiven's Derry Senior Football Championship success in 1991. Brolly won another Derry Championship medal in 1997, and also won the Ulster Club Championship. He was top scorer in that year's Derry Championship with 1–25 (28 points) and was man of the match in the final at Celtic Park.

He played for St Brigid's GAC in Belfast when it won the Antrim Intermediate Football Championship. In 2006 St Brigid's became the first GAA club to play against the Police Service of Northern Ireland Gaelic football team. In 2009 Brolly broke his leg while playing in a challenge match against Cookstown. St Brigid's reached that year's Antrim Senior Football Championship semi-final, but were defeated after a replay by a point by Portglenone.

College

It was in the Sigerson Cup that Joe Brolly first appeared on the national stage. He won his only inter-varsity medal in 1992, as a member of Queen's victorious Ryan Cup team.

Hurling

Brolly played hurling for local club Kevin Lynch's when they won Division 2 of the All-Ireland Féile na nGael in 1982.

Coaching career

Brolly helped out with the Antrim team that finished runners-up in the 2007 Tommy Murphy Cup and winners of the 2008 competition.

Other work

Brolly writes a column for Gaelic Life and the Sunday Independent. A radio and television football pundit, he is a former regular on the long-running RTÉ programme The Sunday Game. Keith Duggan, writing in The Irish Times, described Brolly as "the most lippy and articulate pundit on Irish television". In 2012, he was dubbed "the Salman Rushdie of County Mayo".

As a barrister he has specialised in criminal matters and has defended Irish republicans in court.

He appeared as Counsel in a UK Supreme Court case in 2011 that established a right to compensation for a miscarriage of justice without the requirement to prove the innocence of the wrongly convicted person (in this instance the Derry republicans Eamonn McDermott and Raymond McCartney).

Career statistics

Honours

County

• All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (1): 1993
• National Football League (4): 1992, 1995, 1996, 2000
• Ulster Senior Football Championship (2): 1993, 1998
• Dr McKenna Cup (2): 1993, 1999

Club

• Ulster Senior Club Football Championship (1): 1997
• Derry Senior Football Championship (2): 1991, 1997
• Derry Senior Football League (2): 1990, 1991

College

• Ryan Cup (1): 1992

Individual

• All Stars Award (2): 1996, 1997

References

1. "The passion of Joe Brolly". Belfast Telegraph. 10 August 2012. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
2. ^ "Derry Pen Pics". 1994 Ulster Championship Quarter-final Programme. 29 May 1994.
3. Brolly, Joe (18 April 2008). "R-E-S-P-E-C-T (find out what it means to me)". Gaelic Life.
4. "Francie Brolly: Former Sinn Féin MLA dies". BBC. 6 February 2020. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
5. "The passion of Joe Brolly". Belfast Telegraph. 12 August 2013. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
6. Sherlock, D.J.M. (2006). Trinity College Record Volume 2006. Dublin: Trinity College Dublin Press. ISBN 1-871408-07-5.
7. Lee West, Maura, ed. (2016). Trevor West: The Bold Collegian. Dublin: The Lillipus Press. ISBN 9781843516767.
8. ^ "The passion of Joe Brolly". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. 10 August 2013. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
9. "Jack McCann". www.newulsterbiography.co.uk. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
10. ^ "A Walk on the Wild Side - Paul Kimmage meets Joe Brolly". Irish Independent. 17 November 2013. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
11. Glennon, Nicole (8 August 2022). "It's a match! Laurita Blewitt weds GAA pundit Joe Brolly in Mayo". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
12. Kierans, John; Kent, David (8 August 2022). "GAA legend Joe Brolly marries podcast host Laurita Blewitt in intimate ceremony". Belfast Live. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
13. Brolly, Joe (31 October 2008). "A tribute to Maisie Donaghy". Gaelic Life. p. 48. Retrieved 14 November 2008.
14. "Football All Stars 90's". Archived from the original on 21 November 2007. Retrieved 8 March 2008.
15. "Facts and Figures". 1998 Ulster Championship Quarter-final Programme. R & S Printers Ltd, Monaghan. 31 May 1998.
16. ^ "Queen's Hall of Fame". Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 8 March 2008.
17. "Lyons' pride pass tough test of character to land League". Irish Examiner. 27 April 1998. Archived from the original on 3 September 2009. Retrieved 6 April 2008.
18. "PSNI Could Join GAA League". Irish Aires News. 1 September 2006. Retrieved 3 August 2008.
19. Brolly, Joe (4 September 2009). "Bread and butter of the club". Gaelic Life.
20. Brolly, Joe (26 October 2007). "Liquid asset the obvious solution". Gaelic Life. p. 48.
21. Said by Michael Lyster and Brolly during the RTÉ Sunday Game Live coverage of the All-Ireland Qualifiers Round 3 games. Down versus Wexford and Tyrone versus Mayo. (The Tommy Murphy Cup final had preceded the two games) – 2 August 2008.
22. Brolly, Joe (16 December 2012). "This is a vicious piece of work". Gaelic Life. Archived from the original on 1 January 2013. Retrieved 16 December 2012.
23. "Drivetime Sport". RTÉ News. Archived from the original on 9 March 2008. Retrieved 8 March 2008.
24. ^ "RTÉ unveil Championship coverage". Retrieved 8 March 2008.
25. "Brolly: 'I am still cringing' about Morrissey insult". Irish Examiner. 28 May 2015. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
26. "RTE tell Joe Brolly 'similar comments won't be tolerated' after Marty Morrissey 'ugly' jibe". Irish Independent. 28 May 2015. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
27. Duggan, Keith (14 February 2013). "'It is funny the stir it can cause when you say what you think'". The Irish Times. Retrieved 14 February 2013.
28. "IRA membership charges dropped". BBC. 29 March 2004. Retrieved 16 March 2008.
29. "Court hears of Real IRA bomb plot". The Irish Times. 11 November 2006. Retrieved 17 March 2008.
30. "Two Belfast men bailed on gun charges". UTV. Archived from the original on 29 November 2003. Retrieved 17 March 2008.
31. , R (on the application of Adams) (FC) (Appellant) v Secretary of State for Justice (Respondent); In the Matter of an Application by Eamonn MacDermott for Judicial Review (Northern Ireland); In the Matter of an Application by Raymond Pius McCartney for Judicial Review (Northern Ireland) UKSC 18.
32. Irish Times report of Supreme Court case. Retrieved 13 May 2011.

External links

• Interview

• All Stars Awards winners (football)
• 1969 births
• Living people
• Alumni of Queen's University Belfast
• Alumni of Trinity College Dublin
• Barristers from Northern Ireland
• Derry inter-county Gaelic footballers
• Dual players
• Dungiven Gaelic footballers
• Gaelic games journalists
• Kevin Lynch's hurlers
• Lawyers from County Londonderry
• People educated at St Patrick's Grammar School, Armagh
• Sunday Independent (Ireland) people
• Winners of one All-Ireland medal (Gaelic football)
• 20th-century people from Northern Ireland
• 20th-century lawyers from Northern Ireland
• 21st-century lawyers from Northern Ireland
• 20th-century Irish sportsmen