Paul McGrane is an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

Gaelic footballer who played at senior level for the Armagh county team in the 1990s and 2000s. He won an

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 ...

medal, seven Ulster Championships and a

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

title with the county. He also won two All Star awards. McGrane plays club football for Ballyhegan Davitts. McGrane is a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He is known as one of Armagh's best ever players. In 2009 to mark the 125th anniversary of the

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include t ...

he was named by ''

The Irish News ''The Irish News'' is a compact daily newspaper based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is Northern Ireland's largest selling morning newspaper and is available throughout Ireland. It is broadly Irish nationalist in its viewpoint, though it als ...

'' as one of the all-time best 125 footballers from Ulster.

Playing career

Inter-county

In 1992 McGrane won the Ulster Minor Football League and

Ulster Minor Football Championship The Ulster Minor Football Championship is the Minor "knockout" competition in the game of Gaelic football played in the province of Ulster in Ireland. The series of games are organised by the Ulster Council. The trophy for the winning side is Th ...

with the Armagh Minor team. Armagh finished runners-up to Meath in that year's All-Ireland Minor final. He was captain of the Minor team that year. McGrane made his Senior inter-county

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

debut for Armagh against

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 a ...

in May

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

. He won his first

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 ...

medal with the county in 1999 – the county's first Ulster Championship in 17 years. Armagh successfully defended their Ulster title the following year. In 2002, he helped Armagh win the Ulster Championship as well as the county's first ever

. McGrane received an All Star award for his performances that year. In 2003 Armagh once again reached the All-Ireland final, but were defeated by neighbours Tyrone. 2004 saw McGrane and Armagh again win the Ulster Championship. In 2005, McGrane helped Armagh win the National League, beating

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. Later that year, he helped Armagh win another Ulster Championship. Team captain

Kieran McGeeney Kieran McGeeney (born 18 October 1971) is an Irish Gaelic football manager and former player, who currently manages his native county, having previously managed the senior Kildare county team from 2007 until 2013. McGeeney played football wi ...

invited McGrane to lift the

Anglo Celt Cup Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from, the Angles, England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term ''Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people o ...

with him after the match. McGrane was awarded a second All Star that year. McGrane took over the Armagh captaincy in November 2005, after Kieran McGeeney retired. Armagh completed a three-in-a-row of Ulster Championships in 2006, this time with McGrane as captain. McGrane won another Ulster Championship medal with Armagh in 2008, his seventh in all and second as captain. McGrane retired from inter-county football in April 2009, due to a persistent knee injury.

Club

With Ballyhegan, McGrane has won the Armagh Junior Football Championship (1995) and Armagh Intermediate Football Championship (1997).

International Rules

McGrane represented

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 ...

in the

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 ...

Province

McGrane played for

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

, and won the Railway Cup on ? occasions with the province.

Management and coaching

In 2012, McGrane established the ''Orchard Academy'' to help young Armagh Gaelic footballers develop their talent with a view to strengthen the county's footballing fortunes at underage and senior level. In January 2015, McGrane was appointed assistant coach for the Armagh minor Gaelic football team under former county teammate Aidan O'Rourke before taking on the manager's position a year later, staying in this role until November 2018, when he was replaced by another former Armagh teammate

Ciarán McKeever Ciaran McKeever (born 25 June 1983) is an Irish Gaelic footballer who plays for St Patrick's and at senior level for the Armagh county team. He won a National Football League medal in 2005 as Armagh defeated Cavan in the final by 0-15 to 0-7. ...

Honours

;Club * 1 Armagh Junior Football Championship 1995 * 1 Armagh Intermediate Football Championship 1997 ;Inter-county * 1

2002 * 7

1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008 * 1 National Football League 2005 * 1

1993 ;Individual * 2 All Star 2002, 2005

References

External links

Ballyhegan Davitt's GAC
{{DEFAULTSORT:McGrane, Paul Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Armagh inter-county Gaelic footballers Ballyhegan Gaelic footballers Gaelic football coaches Gaelic football managers Irish international rules football players Winners of one All-Ireland medal (Gaelic football)