Michael Meehan is a

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 ...

er from

County Galway "Righteousness and Justice" , anthem = () , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Galway.svg , map_caption = Location in Ireland , area_footnotes = , area_total_km2 = ...

. Meehan plays his club football with Caltra and played county football for the

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

. He announced his retirement from inter county football on 21 March 2014 due to injury.

Career

College

Meehan attended St Jarlath's College in

Tuam Tuam ( ; ga, Tuaim , meaning 'mound' or 'burial-place') is a town in Ireland and the second-largest settlement in County Galway. It is west of the midlands of Ireland, about north of Galway city. Humans have lived in the area since the Bron ...

, playing in three consecutive Hogan Cups in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Although they lost the 2000 semi-final to St. Patrick's Navan and the 2001 final to the same opponents they were unstoppable in 2002 to claim their 12th title with a 3–13 to 0–06 victory against St. Michael's Enniskillen. He was an inspirational figure at full-forward, scoring 1–06. Future Galway teammates, Darren Mullahy, Gary Sice, Damien Dunleavy, Alan Burke and Niall Coleman were also on the team. James Kavanagh, a future Kildare senior, also played on the side. Michael captained the team in their victorious 2002 campaign. He inspired

NUI Galway The University of Galway ( ga, Ollscoil na Gaillimhe) is a public research university located in the city of Galway, Ireland. A tertiary education and research institution, the university was awarded the full five QS stars for excellence in 201 ...

to the 2003

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. ...

, the first time the university had won that trophy since 1992.

Inter-county

Meehan won a Connacht MFC medal in 2002, and made his first inter-county Championship start in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, the Connacht Senior Football Championship 1st round clash against

Roscommon Roscommon (; ) is the county town and the largest town in County Roscommon in Ireland. It is roughly in the centre of Ireland, near the meeting of the N60, N61 and N63 roads. The name Roscommon is derived from Coman mac Faelchon who built ...

. Since then, he has been a key part of the Galway set-up, having been consistently been picked by four different managers,

John O'Mahony John Francis O'Mahony (1815 – 7 February 1877) was a Gaelic scholar and the founding member of the Fenian Brotherhood in the United States, sister organisation to the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Despite coming from a reasonably wealthy fa ...

, Peter Forde,

Liam Sammon Liam Sammon (born 1946 in Galway) is an Irish former Gaelic football manager, coach, writer and former player. He played football with his local clubs Father Griffins and Salthill-Knocknacarra and was a member of the senior Galway county tea ...

and

Joe Kernan Joe Kernan or Joseph Kernan may refer to: * Joe Kernan (baseball), 19th-century American baseball player * Joe Kernan (Gaelic footballer) (born 1954) * Joe Kernan (politician) (1946–2020), American politician * Joseph D. Kernan (born 1955), Uni ...

. Michael has 3 Connacht medals to his name, coming in 2003, 2005 and 2008. In 2004, Meehan was part of the Caltra team that enjoyed a memorable run to All-Ireland Club Championship glory. After coming through the Galway and Connacht club finals, which first time triumphs for the club, Caltra met An Ghaeltacht of Munster. In a close exciting encounter, Caltra prevailed by one point, 0–13 to 0–12. Michael was named Man Of The Match for his performance, scoring 6 points. His brothers, Declan, Tomás, Enda and Noel, who captained the team, were all starting players on the team. For several years, Meehan was also a part of the Galway Under-21 set up. He was a key part of both of Galway's Under-21 All-Ireland triumphs in 2002 and 2005. He formed a devastating partnership with

Seán Armstrong Seán Armstrong (born 20 March 1986) is an Irish former Gaelic footballer from Galway. Armstrong played his club football with Salthill-Knocknacarra and inter-county football for Galway from 2005 to 2014 spending ten years as an inter-county ...

in 2005 as they scored 6–03 between them in Galways' 6-05 to 4–06 victory over Down. In the 2008 Championship, Meehan won his third Connacht senior medal on 13 July as Galway defeated

Mayo Mayo often refers to: * Mayonnaise, often shortened to "mayo" * Mayo Clinic, a medical center in Rochester, Minnesota, United States Mayo may also refer to: Places Antarctica * Mayo Peak, Marie Byrd Land Australia * Division of Mayo, an Aust ...

by 2–12 to 1–14 in

MacHale Park MacHale Park () is a GAA stadium in Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland. It is the home of the Castlebar Mitchels GAA and Mayo GAA Gaelic football teams. Built in 1931, as of 2022 the ground has a capacity of approximately 28,000 and is named aft ...

. In their quarter-final clash against Kerry, Michael scored 10 points and seemed to be carrying the Galway side in the first half against the reigning All-Ireland champions. However, despite leading by 2 points early in the second-half, they could not capitalise on their advantage and Kerry won out in the end by 5 points. Michael finished the 2008 season with 0–22, one point short of his personal best. Meehan was due to captain the Galway Senior Footballers for the 2010 Championship but sat out due to injury. 2011 proved to be difficult as Meehan continued to battled a troubled ankle injury that almost derailed his career. In 2012 he made a dramatic recovery, but did not return until the Connacht quarter Final as a sub against

. On 21 March 2014 he announced his retirement from inter-county football due to ongoing injury trouble.

Personal life

Michael is the youngest of the Meehan brothers. Both Declan and Tomás have won All-Ireland medals for

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...

, in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

and

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

. The passion of football in the Meehan family was clearly evident when 5 brothers started on the successful All-Ireland Club Championship Caltra side while eldest brother Seamus was a sub on that day. Michael's sister, Mairead, was a sporting star in her own right. She was a very useful camogie player. A teacher who graduated from DCU, she gained an All-Ireland junior camogie medal with Holy Rosary College. Mairead died in 2007 from

osteosarcoma An osteosarcoma (OS) or osteogenic sarcoma (OGS) (or simply bone cancer) is a cancerous tumor in a bone. Specifically, it is an aggressive malignant neoplasm that arises from primitive transformed cells of mesenchymal origin (and thus a sarcoma) a ...

. Meehan has participated in a marketing campaign for

Ireland West Airport Knock Ireland West Airport ( ga, Aerfort Iarthar Éireann Mhuire), officially known as Ireland West Airport Knock ( ga, Aerfort Iarthar Éireann Chnoc Mhuire), is an international airport south-west of Charlestown, County Mayo, Ireland. The vi ...

. He teaches mathematics at St Jarlath's College, where he was educated, and helps manage the school team.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meehan, Michael 1984 births Living people Alumni of the University of Galway Caltra Gaelic footballers Galway inter-county Gaelic footballers Irish international rules football players Irish schoolteachers Mathematics educators University of Galway Gaelic footballers People educated at St Jarlath's College