Aidan McCullen (born 5 January 1977) is a businessman and retired

Ireland national rugby union team The Ireland national rugby union team is the men's representative national team for the island of Ireland in rugby union. The team represents both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Ireland competes in the annual Six Nations Champio ...

player. He played as a back rower, principally at blindside flanker but also as an openside, no.8 and occasionally in the second row. He played for the

Ireland national rugby sevens team The Ireland national rugby sevens team competed in several international rugby sevens competitions. The team was governed by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU). In May 2025 the IRFU dismantled the programme at the end of the 2024/25 season, i ...

in a number of competitions, including

Hong Kong Sevens The Hong Kong Sevens ( zh, t=香港國際七人欖球賽, link=no) is a rugby sevens tournament held annually in Hong Kong on a weekend in late March or early April. Considered the premier tournament on the World Rugby Sevens Series competiti ...

and the

2001 Rugby World Cup Sevens The 2001 Rugby World Cup Sevens was the third edition of the Rugby World Cup Sevens and was held in Mar del Plata, Argentina. New Zealand defeated Australia to win the tournament for the first time. All the matches were played at José María M ...

. McCullen is married to former

Miss Ireland Miss World Ireland is a national Beauty pageant in Ireland. Winners of the competition represent Ireland at Miss World. Among the winners are Rosanna Davison, who went on to win Miss World 2003, and Pamela Uba, who in 2021 became the first ...

model Niamh Redmond. They have two sons.

Rugby career

McCullen started playing rugby at

Castleknock College Castleknock College () is a voluntary Vincentian secondary school for boys, situated in the residential suburb of Castleknock, west of Dublin city centre, Ireland. Founded in 1835 by Philip Dowley, it is one of the oldest boys' schools in ...

after moving to Dublin from

County Meath County Meath ( ; or simply , ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is bordered by County Dublin to the southeast, County ...

. McCullen played for

Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...

at schools, and captained the Leinster under 19s and under 20s before representing

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

at under 21 level. In 1998, after playing for Ireland under-21s, he played a season for

US Dax Union Sportive Dax Rugby Landes, also known as US Dax, is a French rugby union club currently playing in Pro D2, the second level of the French league system. They were founded in 1904. They play at Stade Maurice Boyau (capacity 16,170). They w ...

in that year's French first division before joining

Lansdowne Football Club Lansdowne Football Club, is a rugby union team based in Dublin, Ireland. Called Football Club instead of Rugby Football Club due to being founded before the formation of the IRFU. It was founded in 1872 by Henry Dunlop as the ''Irish Champion Ath ...

in the All-Ireland League. McCullen then joined

Leinster Rugby Leinster Rugby () is one of the four professional provincial club rugby union teams from the island of Ireland. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup. The team represents the Leinster Branch, one of t ...

in 2001 as Ireland moved away from the All-Ireland League and towards the

Celtic league The Celtic League is a pan-Celtic organization, founded in 1961, that aims to promote modern Celtic identity and culture in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man – referred to as the Celtic nations; it places pa ...

. That season he also played for Ireland sevens in the

. He had 60 caps for Leinster and gained an international 15s cap for the game between Ireland and

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

on 20 June 2003. His international career was halted by injury, before he was signed by

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

. McCullen was in the starting Toulouse team, but his time at Toulouse was once again impacted by injury. He then joined

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club that most recently competed in the Premiership Rugby, Premiership, the top division of rugby union in England. The club also participated in the European Rugby Champions Cup, European Champion ...

until 2008. McCullen returned to Ireland and coached his club side Lansdowne back to division one as a forwards' player/coach. For several years, McCullen commentated for Setanta Sports (now Eir Sports) covering the French Top 14, International games and schools rugby.

Business career

McCullen set up and developed the digital infrastructure for the Communicorp Group. As "head of digital at Communicorp", he promoted the concept of "Radio You Can Read", which was an iPad magazine for the radio station Newstalk 106–108. McCullen was recruited by Ireland's national broadcaster RTÉ as "Head of Innovation Partnerships and Funding" in January 2016. As of 2017, McCullen was working with the "business think tank" Katawave. As of 2021, he was presenting a weekly radio show called "The Innovation Show" which is published online, and broadcast on

RTÉ Radio 1 Extra RTÉ Radio 1 Extra is a digital radio station produced by the Irish public-service broadcasting service Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). History Initially launched on 1 December 2008 as RTÉ Choice alongside five other new digital channe ...

on Saturday afternoons. In 2021, McCullen published the Amazon book ''"Undisruptable: A Mindset of Permanent Reinvention for Individuals, Organisations and Life"''. McCullen is a consultant, speaker, and lecturer in Trinity College Business School He is also a non-executive board director for National Broadband Ireland and The Rise Global Foundation

References

External links

ERC Rugby – Player profile
(archived)
lansdownerugby.com – 1st XV
(archived) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mccullen, Aidan Irish rugby union players Ireland international rugby union players Living people 1977 births Ireland international rugby sevens players Lansdowne Football Club players US Dax players Leinster Rugby players Stade Toulousain players London Irish players Rugby union players from Dublin (city) RTÉ Radio 1 presenters Irish expatriate rugby union players in France Irish expatriate rugby union players in England Businesspeople from County Dublin People educated at Castleknock College Broadcasters from County Dublin Rugby union forwards