Mickey Kearins (born 18 April 1943) is an Irish former

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 ki ...

er who played at senior level for the Sligo county team for 17 years from 1961 until 1978. In 1971 he was the first Sligo man to win an All-Star. He is also the only Sligo player to win a Cú Chulainn Award-winning it three consecutive years in 1964–66. In 1975 he helped Sligo win the

Connacht Senior Football Championship The Connacht Senior Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football competition for the senior county teams of Connacht GAA. All of the counties of Connacht participate in the championship, as well as counties London and New York. The winnin ...

for the first time since 1928. Kearins played with Connacht in the

Railway Cup The GAA Interprovincial Championship ( ga, An Corn Idir-Chúigeach) or Railway Cup (''Corn an Iarnróid'') is the name of two annual Gaelic football and hurling competitions held between the provinces of Ireland. The Connacht, Leinster, Munster ...

winning titles in 1967 and 1969. He played his club football with the St Patrick's Dromard club with whom he won seven Sligo Senior Football Championships. Kearins was top scorer in

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 ma ...

history for many decades until May 2021, when

David Tubridy David Tubridy (born 1987) is a Gaelic footballer. He plays senior football for Doonbeg and the Clare county team. Tubridy plays as a forward. The ''Irish Independent'' has described him as "the floating butterfly lurking on the Clare '45". E ...

took the record from him. In 2003, Kearins was included in the book ''Gaelic Football's Top 20''. He managed the Sligo under-21 county football team in the early to mid-2000s. In May 2020, the ''

Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper and online publication which is owned by Independent News & Media (INM), a subsidiary of Mediahuis. The newspaper version often includes glossy magazines. Traditionally a broadsheet n ...

'' named Kearins as one of the "dozens of brilliant players" who narrowly missed selection for its "Top 20 footballers in Ireland over the past 50 years". His brother James also played for Sligo and, later, managed the senior and under-21 teams.

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kearins, Mickey 1943 births Living people Connacht inter-provincial Gaelic footballers Gaelic football forwards Gaelic football managers Sligo inter-county Gaelic footballers St Patrick's Dromard Gaelic footballers