Kevin Nolan (born 19 September 1988) is a Gaelic footballer who formerly played for

Kilmacud Crokes Kilmacud Crokes ( ir, Cill Mochuda Na Crócaigh) is a large Gaelic Athletic Association club located in Stillorgan, Dublin, Republic of Ireland. Background Kilmacud GAA club was formed in 1959 following a historic public meeting in Saint ...

and the Dublin county team. On the field of play, Nolan won a

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. ...

with DCU; an

All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship The All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football tournament which began in season 1970–71. It is the top-tier competition for the senior football clubs of Ireland and London. The current champions are Kilcoo of ...

with Kilmacud Crokes; a

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

and

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (SFC) ( ga, Craobh Shinsir Peile na hÉireann) is the premier competition in Gaelic football. An annual tournament organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), it is contested by the county ...

with Dublin, winning the man of the match award for his performance in the final of the latter.

Early life

Nolan was raised in the Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown suburb of Monkstown. He attended Holly Park for his education. He played

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

with St Joseph's Boys in

Sallynoggin Sallynoggin () is an area of Dublin in Ireland, in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown county and the Dáil constituency of Dún Laoghaire. The area consists mainly of former local authority housing built between the late 1940s and the mid-1950s by the ...

. English association football clubs

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

and

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

expressed an interest and invited him to go to England for trials. He left that sport due to making progress with the Dublin minor football team.

Playing career

Club

Nolan won the

2008 Dublin Senior Football Championship The 2008 Dublin Senior Football Championship is the inter club Gaelic football competition between the top teams in Dublin GAA. The 2008 competition opened with group stages. The first round of the group stages began on May 8, 2008. Kilmacud Cro ...

with Kilmacud Crokes. He then won a

Leinster Senior Club Football Championship The Leinster Senior Club Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football tournament played on a knockout basis between the senior club championship winners of the competing counties in Leinster. The current holders of the Leinster title are Bal ...

, Dublin Division One AFL and the

. He played his last game with Crokes in 2018, when he moved to County Monaghan and began playing for Cremartin.

College

Nolan won a

with DCU.

Inter-county

Nolan won the

Dublin Minor Football Championship The Dublin Minor Football Championship "A" is a Gaelic Athletic Association competition organised by Dublin GAA between the top teams in minor (under-18) Gaelic football in County Dublin "Action to match our speech" , image_map ...

. He made his championship debut for Dublin against

Wexford Wexford () is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 ...

in the final of the 2008

Leinster Senior Football Championship The Leinster Senior Football Championship, known simply as the Leinster Championship and shortened to Leinster SFC, is an annual inter-county Gaelic football competition organised by the Leinster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GA ...

. He won five further Leinster Senior Football Championships with Dublin: in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. Nolan was named the man of the match in the 2011 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final, as Dublin won their first title in sixteen years. He was part of the half-back line with James McCarthy and Ger Brennan, and also scored during the final. However, injury and a medical condition limited his further development as a player. Jim Gavin called time on Nolan's inter-county career by omitting him from the Dublin panel before the start of the 2015 Championship.

International rules

Nolan won the U-17

International Rules Series The International Rules Series is a senior men's international rules football competition between the Australia international rules football team (selected by the Australian Football League) and the Ireland international rules football team (se ...

with

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Move away

Nolan later moved from his base in Lucan to

County Monaghan County Monaghan ( ; ga, Contae Mhuineacháin) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Ulster and is part of Border strategic planning area of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Monaghan. Monaghan County C ...

(close to

Castleblayney Castleblayney (; ) is a town in County Monaghan, Ireland. The town had a population of 3,607 as of the 2016 census. Castleblayney is near the border with County Armagh in Northern Ireland, and lies on the N2 road from Dublin to Derry and Let ...

) and married Lorna (to whom he became engaged in 2017) in April 2019. He previously suggested an openness to playing for the

Monaghan county football team The Monaghan county football team ( ) represents Monaghan in men's Gaelic football and is governed by Monaghan GAA, the county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The team competes in the three major annual inter-county competitions; the ...

. This never came to be.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nolan, Kevin Living people DCU Gaelic footballers Dublin inter-county Gaelic footballers Gaelic football backs Gaelic footballers who switched code Irish schoolteachers Kilmacud Crokes Gaelic footballers Science teachers Winners of one All-Ireland medal (Gaelic football) People educated at St. Declan's College, Dublin 1988 births