Rory Gallagher (born 22 August 1978) 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 ...

manager and former player. Gallagher played for the

Fermanagh Historically, Fermanagh ( ga, Fir Manach), as opposed to the modern County Fermanagh, was a kingdom of Gaelic Ireland, associated geographically with present-day County Fermanagh. ''Fir Manach'' originally referred to a distinct kin group of al ...

and

Cavan Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road that links Dublin (to the south) with Enniskillen, Bally ...

county teams, as well as several club teams, including his home club Erne Gaels, as well as

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

side St Brigid's and Antrim's St Gall's. He was a

selector Selector may refer to: *Selector, electrical or mechanical component, a switch *''Selector'', music scheduling software for radio stations created by Radio Computing Services *Selector, of music, otherwise known as a disc jockey *Selector, a pers ...

for the Donegal county team during their 2012 Championship success, acting as number two to

Jim McGuinness Jim McGuinness (born 16 November 1972) is an association football coach and former Gaelic footballer, coach and manager, who won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship as both player and manager with the Donegal county team. Having gu ...

. He left the Donegal panel after the 2013 championship but later returned as Jim McGuinness's successor in October 2014, when McGuinness departed following the

2014 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final The 2014 All-Ireland Football Final, the culmination of the 2014 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, was played at Croke Park in Dublin on 21 September 2014. Ulster champions Donegal, last champions in 2012 took on Munster champions Kerr ...

. With John McNulty, he was joint manager of the Cill Chartha club in 2014 during his time away from the county panel.

Playing career

He had trials with English professional

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 ...

clubs

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

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. T ...

. He broke his leg in October 1993. He is a cousin of fellow Fermanagh footballer Raymond Gallagher.

Club

Gallagher won the

Antrim Senior Football Championship The Antrim Senior Football Championship is an annual Gaelic Athletic Association competition between the top Gaelic football clubs in Antrim GAA. The winners of the championship represent Antrim in the Ulster Senior Club Football Championship ...

and the

Ulster Senior Club Football Championship The Ulster Senior Club Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football competition played between the top clubs in Ulster GAA. The trophy awarded to the winners is the Seamus McFerran Cup ( ga, Corn Shéamuis Mhic Fearáin). The winners and th ...

with St Gall's in 2009 and added the

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 ...

in 2010. He won the

Dublin Senior Football Championship The Dublin Senior Football Championship (currently known for sponsorship reasons as the '' Go-Ahead'' Dublin Senior Football Championship) is an annual Gaelic Athletic Association competition between the top Dublin GAA clubs. The winners of the ...

and the

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 Ba ...

with St Brigid's in 2003.

Inter-county

Gallagher played for both

and

. Gallagher was top scorer in the

Ulster Senior Football Championship The Ulster Senior Football Championship is an inter-county competition for Gaelic football teams in the province of Ulster. It is organised by the Ulster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and begins in early May. The final is usu ...

for three consecutive years: in 2000 (1-19), 2001 (0-16) and 2002 (4-12). In 2002, he scored 3-09 in an

game against

Monaghan Monaghan ( ; ) is the county town of County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It also provides the name of its Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish and Monaghan (barony), barony. The population of the town as of the 2016 census was 7 ...

. This equalled the record for the highest individual scorer in any championship football match set by Dublin's Johnny Joyce in 1960; Gallagher and Joyce held the joint record for eighteen years until

Cillian O'Connor Cillian O'Connor (born 1992) is an Irish Gaelic footballer who plays for Ballintubber and the Mayo county team. O'Connor is the leading all-time top scorer in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. Career O'Connor made his Ballintub ...

's four goals (accompanied by nine points) in the

2020 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship The 2020 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship was the 133rd edition of the Gaelic Athletic Association's premier inter-county Gaelic football tournament since its establishment in 1887. The public health measures introduced to combat the CO ...

semi-final at

Croke Park Croke Park ( ga, Páirc an Chrócaigh, ) is a Gaelic games stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Named after Archbishop Thomas Croke, it is referred to as Croker by GAA fans and locals. It serves as both the principal national stadium of Ireland and he ...

broke it. He left the Fermanagh panel in 2002. but briefly returned to the Fermanagh setup in 2010. Gallagher was unimpressed with the appointment of John O'Neill as county manager.

Managerial career

Selector: Donegal

In 2011, Gallagher joined the Donegal senior football team as a selector. As soon as he joined he knew all the players' names. Jim McGuinness had originally recruited Peter McGinley but he had work commitments and spoke of Gallagher as an impressive coach. Martin McHugh also thinks highly of him. McGuinness decided to call upon Gallagher. Since his arrival McGuinness's team have twice won Ulster and in 2012 they got their hands on Sam the man himself. This led the people of Donegal to look upon Gallagher with awe and reverence and as a kind of

demi-god A demigod or demigoddess is a part-human and part-divine offspring of a deity and a human, or a human or non-human creature that is accorded divine status after death, or someone who has attained the "divine spark" ( spiritual enlightenment). A ...

to Jim's

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of ''mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach'' ...

, though this was not in evidence when McGuinness departed and Gallagher took over. He resigned as a selector in 2013. He was then linked with the vacant Fermanagh and Antrim jobs but settled instead for Donegal Under-21s assistant manager under

Maxi Curran Maxi Curran is a Gaelic football manager from Downings, County Donegal. He attended Mulroy College in Milford for his secondary education. Curran succeeded McGuinness as Donegal under-21 football team manager on 19 January 2012. He has also b ...

. After his departure from the Donegal senior team, fellow McGuinness underling Curran, who also sacrificed himself, said: "I think that Rory made an enormous contribution to Donegal's success as a tactician, coach, motivator and diplomat. He did not spare himself in bringing Donegal right up to the top ..I cannot speak highly enough of him and I consider it an honour and a privilege to have worked alongside him. He will undoubtedly be a massive asset to any club or county side fortunate enough to engage his services." After Gallagher left the Donegal panel in 2013, he became joint manager of Cill Chartha with John McNulty.

Manager: Donegal

After the departure of Jim McGuinness. Gallagher and former Mayo manager

James Horan James Horan may refer to: * James Horan (actor) (born 1954), American character actor * James Horan (cricketer) (1880–1945), Australian cricketer * James Horan (Gaelic footballer) James Horan (born 1972) is a Gaelic football manager and f ...

were rumoured as the most likely replacements until Horan announced he was not interested in the job. This left Gallagher as the most likely candidate. Gallagher was appointed the new manager of the Donegal senior football team in October 2014. Gallagher made his competitive managerial debut for Donegal in the National Football League Division 1 win against Derry with a score of 1-15 0-12. His second game ended in a defeat against Dublin losing 2-10 0-11. His third game ended with a marginal win against Cork with a scoreline of 0-12 1-08. Donegal's next meeting came against Monaghan resulting in a defeat of 1-04 0-09. Another win followed against Tyrone in a 1-13 0-06 scoreline. In the final round Donegal drew with Mayo 0-12 1-09 but made it through to the semi final on points difference but lost to Cork in a scoreline of 4-11 0-19. Gallagher's Championship debut soon followed, with Donegal meeting Tyrone in the preliminary round with the winner facing Armagh. Donegal overcame Tyrone in Ballybofey with a win of 1-13 1-10. Donegal later faced Kieran McGeeney's Armagh in what was expected to be a tough match following the previous year's meeting in the All-Ireland SFC quarter-final where Donegal snatched a victory 2 minutes from time winning by a point in a tense game that was going either way. However, it was not the case this time as Gallagher's men eased their way to victory with a 0-08 2-11 win, allowing Donegal to progress to the semi-final to meet Derry, whom they beat 0-10 1-09 in Clones to make Gallagher's first Ulster SFC final as manager and Donegal's fifth successive final, which resulted in a narrow defeat to Monaghan by a score line of 0-11 0-10. Thus, Gallagher's first season lost Donegal their Ulster crown. As a result of Donegal losing in the Ulster SFC final, Gallagher's men met Galway on 1 August 2015 at Croke Park in the last round of the All-Ireland Qualifiers. Donegal defeated Galway in a scoreline of 3-12 0-11 setting up a meeting with Connacht Champions Mayo in the All-Ireland SFC quarter-final, which resulted in defeat for Donegal by a 2-13 0-11 scoreline bringing an end to their 2015 Championship campaign. More mediocrity followed in 2016. Two injury time points in the Ulster SFC final handed Tyrone their first provincial title since 2010. Leinster and All-Ireland champions Dublin were the opponents in the All-Ireland quarter-final. Dublin avenged their famous defeat in the 2014 semi-final (achieved by McGuinness after Gallagher's departure from his backroom team). A 2017 Ulster Senior Football Championship semi-final capitulation to Tyrone and 2017 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship exit to Galway at

Markievicz Park Markievicz Park ( ga, Páirc Marcievicz) is the principal GAA stadium in County Sligo, Ireland, home to the Sligo Gaelic football and hurling teams. Built in 1955 in Sligo town (due mostly to Seán Forde who single-handedly gathered the fund ...

achieved a new low for a decade that had started so well and Gallagher was gone. Gallagher stepped down as Donegal senior football manager on 31 July 2017.

Fermanagh

Gallagher was appointed senior manager of the Fermanagh county team on 11 September 2017. He could only bring them as far as the

2018 Ulster Senior Football Championship The 2018 Ulster Senior Football Championship was the 130th instalment of the annual Ulster Senior Football Championship organised by Ulster GAA. It is one of the four provincial competitions of the 2018 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. T ...

final against his former side, Donegal. Despite his background knowledge of the Donegal team, Donegal strolled to victory with ease. Eight points down by the 31st minute of the first half, Fermanagh had to deploy a hastily cobbled together Plan B, but to little effect, though they made it to half-time with just the eight-point difference. A disallowed second-half Donegal goal for a square ball infringement had little effect as Donegal ran out winners by a double score. Gallagher left Fermanagh in 2019.

Derry

Gallagher was soon appointed senior manager of the Derry county team, with the board at the time praising him as a "top rank professional manager". It is unclear how much he is being paid (at least one member of the successor board dreads the prospect of even asking) but as part of the deal he was given a

BMW 5 Series The BMW 5 Series is an executive car manufactured and marketed by BMW since 1972, succeeding the New Class Sedans, and currently in its seventh generation. The 5 Series was initially available as a sedan, with a wagon/estate body style (market ...

executive car Executive car is a British term for a large car which is equivalent to the European E-segment and American full-size classifications. Executive cars are larger than compact executive cars (and the non-luxury equivalent mid-size cars), and small ...

to drive back and forth. Under Gallagher, Derry won the 2022 Ulster Senior Football Championship against his former team Donegal in extra time 1:14 to 1:16.

Personal life

As of 2021, he was an employee of construction recruitment firm, 3D Personnel, based between their Dublin and Belfast offices.

References

External links

* http://www.cul4kidz.com/culstarsfball_gallagher.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Gallagher, Rory 1978 births Living people Businesspeople in construction Cavan inter-county Gaelic footballers Erne Gaels Gaelic footballers Fermanagh inter-county Gaelic footballers Gaelic footballers who switched code Gaelic football forwards Gaelic football managers Gaelic football selectors St Brigid's (Dublin) Gaelic footballers St Gall's Gaelic footballers