Pat O'Neill is a retired Irish sportsperson. He played

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 ...

with his local club

Cappawhite Cappawhite, also Cappaghwhite (), is a village in County Tipperary, Ireland and is located on the R505 regional road from Cashel to County Limerick. Close major towns near the village include Tipperary Town which is 12 kilometres south of the v ...

and with the

Tipperary Tipperary is the name of: Places *County Tipperary, a county in Ireland **North Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Nenagh **South Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Clonmel *Tipperary (town), County Tipperary's na ...

senior inter-county team from 1987 until 1988. He captained the Tipperary team that won the 1988 National Hurling League, starting the final against

Offaly County Offaly (; ga, Contae Uíbh Fhailí) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Uí Failghe. It was formerly known as King's County, in hono ...

at right half forward and scoring two goals and a point. He was also captain when Tipperary won the

Munster Senior Hurling Championship The Munster GAA Hurling Senior Championship, known simply as the Munster Championship, is an annual Inter county, inter-county hurling competition organised by the Munster GAA, Munster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). It is the h ...

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

and was an unused substitute in the 1988 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final. There was a period of controversy in Tipperary Hurling at that time. "Babs" Keating, the Tipperary manager, elected to drop

Pat O'Neill Pat O'Neill may refer to: Sportspeople * Pat O'Neill (American football) (born 1971), American football player *Pat O'Neill (Dublin footballer) (born 1950), Dublin Gaelic footballer and manager *Pat O'Neill (Galway footballer) (born 1956), Galway G ...

and strip him of the captaincy for the 1988 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final and replace him with marquee forward Nicky English. It was believed that Keating felt that the smoother Nicky English was more suited to team media duties. The image of Third Level Educated

University College Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh) is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one of ...

Graduate Nicky English as an All Ireland winning captain was expected to find greater favour in the corporate world. This would be in contrast to

better known as Pa O'Neill who was deemed too countryish in his demeanour. Alas, there was to be no luck for the decision, and Tipperary lost the All Ireland Final to Galway.

References

External links

GAA Info Profile

Teams

Living people Cappawhite hurlers Tipperary inter-county hurlers Year of birth missing (living people) {{Tipperary-hurling-bio-stub