Joe McQuillan is a

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

referee. He is a member of the Kill Shamrocks club in

County Cavan County Cavan ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Cavan and is based on the hi ...

. McQuillan has refereed four All-Ireland finals: the

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

decider between

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

and Kerry, the

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

decider between Dublin and Mayo, the

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

decider between Dublin and Mayo and the

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

decider between Mayo and Tyrone. He was the third Cavanman to referee an All-Ireland final, following Fintan Tierney of Butlersbridge (1972) and Brian Crowe of Cavan Gaels (2006). Tierney, though, was originally from Longford. McQuillan was in charge during the game that produced the infamous "spitgate" incident in the 2013 National Football League - when Donegal's reigning national footballer of the year Karl Lacey, who was injured that day, was hit by some spit from the mouth of a Tyrone fan. McQuillan later refereed the highly anticipated opening Ulster Championship clash between All-Ireland holders Donegal and Tyrone, winners in 2003, 2005 and 2008. Among the other important football matches he has refereed are the 2011 Ulster final, two Leinster finals, a Munster final and club and U21 All-Ireland finals. In 2022, Martin Breheny named him among "five of the best football referees".

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final referees Gaelic football referees Sportspeople from County Cavan {{Cavan-gaelic-football-bio-stub