Kevin 'Hank' McGourty is an Irish

dual player Dual player or dual star is a term used in Hiberno-English to describe someone who competes in multiple sports — for example, in Victorian Ireland, cricket and hurling. The term today in Gaelic games typically describes a male player who plays ...

Gaelic games Gaelic games ( ga, Cluichí Gaelacha) are a set of sports played worldwide, though they are particularly popular in Ireland, where they originated. They include Gaelic football, hurling, Gaelic handball and rounders. Football and hurling, the ...

, i.e.

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

and

hurling Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of p ...

, who plays for the St Gall's club,

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

and

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...

, and, previously,

Queen's University Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

and

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...

Biography

McGourty was educated at De La Salle Boys School Belfast, Queen's University Belfast, University College Dublin, and Blackhall Place. Following the successful completion of a Bachelor of Arts (Joint Honors) Modern History and Political Science at Queen's he became involved in

electoral politics An electoral system or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their results are determined. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections ma ...

. Between 2004 and 2007 he became the first student to be elected to political office at Queen's University Belfast Students Union on three occasions. During this period he served as Vice Chairperson of the Council of University Sport Ireland (CUSAI), now known as Student Sport Ireland. He also served on the National Executive Committee of the British University Sports Association (BUSA), and on the Board of the

European University Sports Association European University Sports Association (EUSA) is an umbrella non-governmental ( NGO) non-profit organisation, working in the field of university sport in Europe. It links national university sport federations, universities, teams, individual comp ...

(EUSA). During this period he was appointed onto the Russell Group of Universities SU committee, and served as Chairman of the Universities Academic Board. He also served on the 2007 Westminster Higher Education Committee review of Higher Education, representing Northern Ireland. In 2007 he was a member of the

Sigerson Cup The Sigerson Cup is the trophy for the premier Gaelic football championship among Higher Education institutions (Universities, Colleges and Institutes of Technology) in Ireland. It traditionally begins in mid January and ends in late February. ...

winning squad at QUB, being named Player of the Tournament. He was awarded full colours by the university for his achievements beating the Poly in the final that year, containing several Lamh Dearg players. In 2010 he was part of the St Gall's team that won the club's (and Antrim's) first All-Ireland Club Football title, completing a run of 10 out of 11 Antrim County Championship titles in the process. In 2011 he was joint

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

team in that competition's centenary year, whilst reading for a Postgraduate in Political Science. The university awarded him an Elite Athlete Bursary, alongside Noel McGrath (Tipperary hurler) and future Irish Olympians,

Claire Lambe Claire Lambe (born 16 May 1990 in Dublin) is an Irish rower, who began rowing in 2005. In August 2015 she was a member of the lightweight women's double scull which qualified Lambe and her rowing partner Sinead Jennings for the Rio Olympics. ...

(rowing) and

Arthur Lanigan-O'Keeffe Arthur Lanigan-O'Keeffe (born 13 September 1991) is an Irish athlete who competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2016 Summer Olympics in the Modern pentathlon. In the 2016 Olympics he finished in 8th place running 11.12.23 for the final 320 ...

(pentathlon). The university awarded him full colours for his sporting achievements. In 2018 the

Law Society of Ireland The Law Society of Ireland ( ga, Dlí-Chumann na hÉireann) is a professional body established on 24 June 1830 and is the educational, representative and regulatory body of the solicitors' profession in Ireland. As of 2020, the Law Society had ...

awarded him a MOOC Certificate in Sports Law. At primary and secondary schools he was an accomplished soccer player and, between 1993 and 2000, played on De La Salle College's schoolboy team, during which time he won four Northern Ireland Cup medals. He subsequently represented both Donegal Celtic and Carrick Rangers in the Irish Football League. He is a former columnist on sporting matters with the ''

Gaelic Life ''Gaelic Life'' is a Gaelic games newspaper. It has been published since 2007. A weekly publication, it appears on a Thursday. Though it offers coverage primarily of Gaelic games in the province of Ulster, it circulates through the other three ...

'' and ''County Antrim Post'' newspapers. He is an Irish republican, with previous ties to the

Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil (, ; meaning 'Soldiers of Destiny' or 'Warriors of Fál'), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party ( ga, audio=ga-Fianna Fáil.ogg, Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach), is a conservative and Christian- ...

party, and is an infrequent blogger on the Wordpress site on sport, politics and legal matters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McGourty, Kevin Living people Antrim inter-county Gaelic footballers Dual players Gaelic footballers who switched code Irish male bloggers Queen's University Belfast Gaelic footballers St Gall's hurlers St Gall's Gaelic footballers UCD Gaelic footballers Ulster inter-provincial Gaelic footballers Year of birth missing (living people)