Ciarán Kilkenny (born 7 July 1993) is an
Irish 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 who plays for the
Dublin county team and as a
dual player for his club
Castleknock
Castleknock () is an affluent suburb located west of the centre of Dublin city, Ireland. It is centered on the village of the same name in Fingal.
In addition to the suburb, the name "Castleknock" also refers to older units of land division: ...
. He was previously on the playing list of
Australian rules football
Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...
club
Hawthorn, as a rookie.
He has featured on an advertising billboard campaign in
India.
Early life
Kilkenny attended
Scoil Oilibhéir in
Clonsilla.
Hurling
Kilkenny represented Dublin at underage at several levels. Despite being previously offered a place on the Dublin senior hurling panel, he chose to dedicate his time solely to football.
Kilkenny does, however, still play hurling for his club, Castleknock.
Football
Club
Kilkenny won the
Dublin Minor Football Championship with Castleknock in 2011. He won the
Dublin Junior Football Championship with Castleknock, his last medal before switching codes to Aussie rules.
Inter-county
Minor/U21
Kilkenny won the 2011
Leinster Minor Football Championship and the
Leinster Minor Hurling Championship with Dublin in 2011. He was on the losing side for both teams in the All-Ireland finals in 2011 at Croke Park.
Kilkenny was called up to the Dublin under 21 team in 2012. He won the
Leinster Under 21 Football Championship with Dublin in March 2012. Ciaran scored a total of 1-07 in the Leinster final against
Louth at
Páirc Tailteann in Navan. The game finished on 1-16 to 0-08 with Dublin winning the game by a comfortable 11 point margin to become Leinster champions for the tenth time. Ciaran Kilkenny scored a total of 2-25 (0-7f) for Dublin in the Leinster Championship. Dublin went on to meet
Cork
Cork or CORK may refer to:
Materials
* Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product
** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container
***Wine cork
Places Ireland
* Cork (city)
** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...
in the All-Ireland semi-final at Portlaoise. Kilkenny scored just one point in a game in which Dublin won against the Munster champions. The game finished on a scoreline of 3-11 to 0-14. Ciarán won the all-Ireland under 21 championship with Dublin against Connacht champions
Roscommon in Tullamore. Kilkenny scored a total of four points in a close game against Roscommon which ended with heavy scoring from Dublin. The game finished on a scoreline of 2-12 to 1-11.
Kilkenny was named the
Cadbury's Hero of the Future
The EirGrid U20 Footballer of the year, (previously known as the Cadbury's Hero of the Future) 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 ...
for his performances with Dublin in 2012.
Senior
Kilkenny made his debut for the Dublin senior football team against
Laois in the 2012
All-Ireland Senior Football Championship when he came on as a substitute for
Diarmuid Connolly. He made his first start for the Dublin senior football team against
Mayo in the
2012
File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...
All-Ireland football semi-final defeat. He scored three points in the game.
Move to AFL
Kilkenny was linked to a possible move to Australia as a rookie in the Australian AFL. Dublin football legend
Dessie Farrell described the potential departure of Kilkenny to Australian football as "a huge loss".
confirmed the signing on 29 September 2011, after had also tried to secure the 19-year-old's services. Kilkenny flew to Melbourne to visit Hawthorn officials at Waverley, and was scheduled to become the first Irishman to play at the club. Recent changes to rookie list rules had made the recruitment of Irish players more appealing, with clubs now able to count one Irish player as an international rookie, meaning the player does not take up a main rookie spot.
After just four months and a return to Ireland for the Christmas, Kilkenny decided for personal reasons to remain in Ireland where he wished to pursue a career with Castleknock and Dublin.
Return to Ireland
Upon his return to the native soil, Kilkenny collected both the
2013 NFL title and
2013 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship
The 2013 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship was the 127th edition of the Gaelic Athletic Association, GAA's premier inter-county Gaelic football tournament, played between 31 counties of Ireland (excluding Kilkenny GAA, Kilkenny), London GA ...
title with Dublin. In March 2014, he tore his
anterior cruciate ligament while fulfilling a Dublin football fixture at Croke Park against
Kildare in a
2014 NFL, causing him to miss the rest of the season.
By winning his sixth All Star in 2022, he drew level with
Stephen Cluxton
Stephen Cluxton (born 17 December 1981) is an Irish Gaelic footballer who played as a goalkeeper at senior level for the Dublin county team.
Cluxton made his senior debut for Dublin during the 2001 Championship. Since then he has established ...
and became the Dublin player with the joint highest number of awards.
International rules
Kilkenny played twice for
Ireland against
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
in the
2013 International Rules Series
The 2013 International Rules Series (officially the 2013 Irish Daily Mail International Rules Series) was the 17th International Rules Series contested between Gaelic footballers from Ireland and Australian footballers from Australia. Ireland en ...
, and scored a goal in the second Test at Croke Park.
Career statistics
: ''As of match played 10 July 2022''
Honours
;Dublin
*
All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (7):
2013
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,
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
,
2016
File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...
,
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
,
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
,
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
,
2020
2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...
;Individual
*
All Star (6): 2015, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kilkenny, Ciaran
1993 births
Living people
All Stars Awards winners (football)
Castleknock Gaelic footballers
Castleknock hurlers
Dual players
DCU Gaelic footballers
Dublin inter-county Gaelic footballers
Gaelic footballers who switched code
Gaelic football forwards
Irish expatriate sportspeople in Australia
Irish international rules football players
Irish players of Australian rules football
People from Castleknock
Sportspeople from Fingal
Winners of seven All-Ireland medals (Gaelic football)