Advertisement League of Ireland Horse Racing TV Listings GAA Fixtures The Video Review Sport meets news, current affairs, society & pop culture Rugby Weekly Extra Dive into all the news and analysis 3 times a week The Football Family Weekly insights from the week’s big talking points Advertisement More Stories Niall Ó Ceallacháin.Leah Scholes/INPHO man in charge Niall Ó Ceallacháin: The low-profile local entrusted with lifting Dublin to the next level The Dublin hurling boss goes up against his predecessor, Galway manager Micheal Donoghue, this weekend. 10.34am, 22 May 2025 Share options THE MORNING AFTER Niall Ó Ceallacháin’s appointment as Dublin manager last September, a request for a media interview was politely declined. “Thanks but no thanks,” was the gist of Ó Ceallacháin’s response, providing us with an early indicator of how the no-nonsense, tunnel visioned Na Fianna man would go about his business. Whilst Micheal Donoghue, Ó Ceallacháin predecessor and the man he will face this weekend in a de facto Leinster SHC semi-final, was a household name with a CV and punditry profile that even passing hurling fans were familiar with, Ó Ceallacháin came to the table with an altogether lower profile. Which suited him just fine. Galway boss Micheal Donoghue.Tom Maher / INPHO Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO Six weeks later, at a regular end of season media event to chat with players from all four codes laid on by Dublin GAA sponsors Staycity Aparthotels, Ó Ceallacháin was surprisingly added to the schedule. Chances are he, or perhaps Dublin GAA, figured it would be a useful, controlled environment to break bread with the media. If you discount Pat Gilroy, renowned as a football man parachuted into the Dublin hurling job for one year, in 2018, more for his organisational skills than small ball experience, then Ó Ceallacháin is the first home grown appointment since Tommy Naughton in 2005. Between Naughton and Ó Ceallacháin, Anthony Daly, Ger Cunningham, Gilroy, Mattie Kenny and Donoghue all came to the role with significant inter-county history, as players or coaches/managers, or both in some cases. Yet outside of the Na Fianna club in Glasnevin, Ó Ceallacháin background was a thing of mystery. “I was actually part of the first underage (Dublin) U14 development squad, the first time it was ever put in,” he explained at that first media morning last September. “Conal Keaney was a year older than me, there wouldn’t have actually been an U14 team when he was that age. “My year was the likes of me, Dotsy O’Callaghan, Smiley (Derek O’Reilly) from Craobh Chiarain, Keith Elliott, Gary Maguire from ‘Boden, who hurled in goal for Dublin for years, Philly Brennan, who captained Dublin.” Ó Ceallacháin never made it as a Dublin senior, instead playing for his club and going down the coaching route at a relatively young age. His overhaul of Na Fianna – he guided them to two county titles, a Leinster title and January’s breakthrough All-Ireland having never competed in a senior county final until 2021 – was what got him the Dublin gig. Ó Ceallacháin's success with Na Fianna led him to the Dublin job.Tom Maher / INPHO Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO It was a similar tale with Donoghue when he got the Galway job for the first time, in late 2015, having previously managed his native Clarinbridge to All-Ireland club success in 2011. From perhaps 20 separate dealings with Ó Ceallacháin in recent seasons, in various media scenarios throughout Na Fianna’s successes and so far with Dublin, he comes across as courteous but cautious in front of the microphone, and always intensely focused. Donoghue presented similarly, rarely wasting 60 seconds with long winded answers if 30 seconds would suffice. Advertisement Donoghue had a stint on The Sunday Game before jumping back into inter-county management with Dublin for the 2023 and 2024 seasons. It was a warmly welcomed appointment in Dublin given his All-Ireland success with Galway in 2017 though a little jarring at the same time. Lest anyone forgets, Dublin and Galway teams had developed a pretty healthy hatred for each other, brawling at one stage during a Super 11s encounter at Fenway Park in 2015. In 2019, it was a Parnell Park defeat to Dublin that ended Donoghue’s reign as Galway manager. Donoghue managed Dublin 30 times in all, between Walsh Cup, National League and Championship games, winning 14 times. Distilled down to Championship encounters, Dublin played 14 times under Donoghue and won six, the undoubted high point of which was last year’s round robin win over Galway in Salthill. Donoghue’s Dublin reign will be remembered for the amount of players who both left and joined the group. In his first year of 2023, Donoghue handed competitive game time to 46 different players. It was a period of flux and transition and when he cut his losses last September and agreed to manage Galway again, he left behind a young Dublin group high on potential but short on tangible successes. Which is where Ó Ceallacháin comes in, the low-profile local whom Dublin GAA officials have entrusted with bringing this group face to face with its full potential. Without any Walsh Cup competition this year, Ó Ceallacháin has already watched 38 players in just 10 competitive games. And while the National League losses to Offaly and Waterford cost them promotion from Division 1B, they were narrow, battling defeats. The sense of a manager maxing out all his resources is strong. Consider the renaissance of John Hetherton under his watch, the sweet tune he is getting from midfield pairing Conor Donohoe and Conor Burke, the form Ronan Hayes is finally showing or how he brought back Chris Crummey and made him the fulcrum of the team again. Ronan Hayes has been in strong form for Dublin.Leah Scholes / INPHO Leah Scholes / INPHO / INPHO Even when all hope appeared gone in Kilkenny last Sunday – Dublin trailed by 16 points early in the second-half – they turned an apparent lost cause into a narrow defeat. Throw in the fact that the injury plagued Donal Burke, a marquee attacker with All-Star nominations from 2022 and 2022, has only started one Championship game this term and it’s clearly a dressing-room battling hard for its boss. Away from hurling, Ó Ceallacháin is CEO with Cluid Housing, a not for profit that provides social housing. “What we basically do is housing provision, so social and affordable housing,” he explained. “(We are) managing just over 12,000 stock this year. Obviously it is a key focus at the minute at national level.” It’s trite to suggest that such a role brings buckets of perspective, placing hurling and the pursuit of sporting goals in a proper context, but it’s probably true. “The honest answer to your question is that life, in general, sport and hurling, it all has to be in a certain perspective,” said Ó Ceallacháin. “We are all obsessed by it (hurling), yeah, when you are in that bubble you are absolutely obsessed by it. I do think you need to be in order to compete at the highest level. But you’ve got to be kept in check as well as regards where it fits into the overall scheme of things. From my experience, it’s not always yourself, it’s your family or those closer to you who need to keep you in check.” Over winter, whilst engineering that All-Ireland win with Na Fianna, Ó Ceallacháin and wife Sarah also welcomed baby Alfie to the household. Clearly he is a high achieving multi-tasker who thrives on completing ambitious projects and meeting lofty targets. Which is essentially what the Dublin hurling gig is. Donoghue surely walked away from it with regrets. After the win over Galway last year, his time with Dublin petered out with a heavy Leinster final defeat to Kilkenny and a five-point All-Ireland quarter-final loss in Cork. Ó Ceallacháin hasn’t set any specific goals for Dublin, not publicly at least, though has talked about taking them to ‘the next level’. Which is? “The next level is where we are regularly competing on a consistent basis to win Leinster and All-Irelands and National Leagues,” he said. “And that’s where we need to go.” They’ll be back in the Leinster final if Ó Ceallacháin can score a win over his predecessor Donoghue at Parnell Park this weekend. Viewcomments Send Tip or Correction Embed this post To embed this post, copy the code below on your site Email “Niall Ó Ceallacháin: The low-profile local entrusted with lifting Dublin to the next level”. Recipient's Email Feedback on “Niall Ó Ceallacháin: The low-profile local entrusted with lifting Dublin to the next level”. Your Feedback Your Email (optional) Report a Comment Please select the reason for reporting this comment. Please give full details of the problem with the comment... This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy before taking part. 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