Joe Brolly

Gaelic footballer and football analyst

Joe Brolly (born 25 June 1969), born Padraig Joseph Brolly, is an Irish Gaelic football analyst, former player and barrister who played at senior level for the Derry county team. He is from Dungiven. Brolly played for Derry in the 1990s and early 2000s and was part of the county's only All Ireland Senior Football Championship winning side in 1993. He also won two Ulster Senior Football Championships and four National League titles. Brolly played club football for St Canice's Dungiven for most of his career, before transferring to St Brigid's GAC in Belfast. He usually played as right corner forward and was renowned for his accurate point taking, goal scoring ability, pace and ability to take on opponents. He was also known for his goal celebration of blowing kisses to the crowd, and had his nose broken twice during his career immediately after scoring goals. After retiring as a player, Brolly fashioned a niche for himself in television punditry, most prominently with RTÉ on The Sunday Game until 2019.

Brolly is the son of noted traditional singer and Limavady Sinn Féin councillor Anne Brolly. His father Francie, also a traditional musician, played Gaelic football for Derry in the 1960s, and was later a Sinn Féin councillor and MLA. Brolly boarded in Saint Patrick's Grammar School, Armagh where he played basketball for Ireland as a schoolboy. After school he progressed to Trinity College Dublin to read law graduating in 1991 with a Bachelors in Laws degree, before doing a postgraduate course at Queen's University Belfast. He was a prominent member of the Dublin University Central Athletic Club (DUCAC) in his Trinity days, and became a member of the student executive. Brolly's first wife was Emma Rose McCann from Ballymena, daughter of the famous Jack McCann, historian, raconteur and proprietor of Jack McCann & Son Solicitors, whom he met in Trinity where she studied French and English literature before qualifying as a solicitor. Joe Brolly is a first cousin of Derry player Liam Hinphey and Monaghan player Vincent Corey, and second cousin to Tyrone footballers Colm and Plunkett Donaghy.

Brolly made his Derry Senior debut against Cavan in the 1990 National League. He was top scorer in the 1997 Ulster Championship with 3–15 (24 points). Brolly added a second Ulster Senior Football Championship in 1998, in the final of which he scored the clinching goal in the last minute. Derry won the National Football League four times in a nine year period from 1992 to 2000 (1992, 1995, 1996, 2000), with Brolly being part of all four. Brolly and Derry finished runners up to Offaly in the 1998 National League decider.

As a 21 year old, Brolly was part of Dungiven's Derry Senior Football Championship success in 1991. Brolly won another Derry Championship medal in 1997, and also won the Ulster Club Championship. He was top scorer in that year's Derry Championship with 1–25 (28 points) and was man of the match in the final at Celtic Park. He played for St Brigid's GAC in Belfast when it won the Antrim Intermediate Football Championship. In 2006 St Brigid's became the first GAA club to play against the Police Service of Northern Ireland Gaelic football team. In 2009 Brolly broke his leg while playing in a challenge match against Cookstown. St Brigid's reached that year's Antrim Senior Football Championship semi final, but were defeated after a replay by a point by Portglenone.

It was in the Sigerson Cup that Joe Brolly first appeared on the national stage. He won his only inter varsity medal in 1992, as a member of Queen's victorious Ryan Cup team.

Brolly helped out with the Antrim team that finished runners up in the 2007 Tommy Murphy Cup and winners of the 2008 competition.