Declan Lally, or Déaglán Ó Maolalaidh, is an Irish

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 ...

er who plays the left half forward position at senior level for the Dublin county team. Lally won 5 Leinster titles and one All Ireland title.

Playing career

Lally was on the DCU side that won the 2006 Sigerson Cup winning player of the match in the final. He was also on the Dublin side that won the 2006 Leinster Senior Football Championship against

Offaly County Offaly (; ) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Uí Failghe. It was formerly known as King's County, in honour of Philip II of Spain ...

. Lally was on the winning sides for Dublin in the U21 Leinster football championship finals against Longford (2003) and Wicklow (2002) scoring goals in both finals. The 2003 game was the first time since 1974–75 that Dublin won back to back Leinster U-21 football championship titles. Dublin went on to win the 2003 U21 All-Ireland football championship. Lally studied finance at

NUI Maynooth Maynooth University (MU) (), is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland. Maynooth University was formerly known as National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUIM; ). It was Ireland ...

and for his master's degree in

Dublin City University Dublin City University (abbreviated as DCU) () is a Third-level education in the Republic of Ireland, university based on the Northside, Dublin, Northside of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Created as the ''National Institute for Highe ...

. Lally was on the winning side for the 2006 Railway Cup victory for Leinster against Connacht which was played in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, US. Lally was on Dublin's winning team for the 2008 O'Byrne Cup which defeated

Longford Longford () is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It had a population of 10,952 at the 2022 census. It is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the county's population lives there. Longford lies at the meeting of ...

in the final.HILL 16
/ref> At the beginning of April 2008 Lally decided to take a break from inter-county football and to travel. In 2007, he worked in Ladyswell National School before taking up a position with

Bank of Ireland Bank of Ireland Group plc () is a commercial bank operation in Ireland and one of the traditional Big Four Irish banks. Historically the premier banking organisation in Ireland, the bank occupies a unique position in Irish banking history. At ...

. Lally then played for McAnespies in Boston, USA winning both the Boston and North American championships for the club's second time ever. After spending a year in the UK, Lally returned to Ireland to win an All-Ireland with the Dublin football team and then as a primary school teacher at Mary Mother of hope senior national school.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Alumni of St Patrick's College, Maynooth Alumni of Dublin City University Bank of Ireland people Dublin inter-county Gaelic footballers DCU Gaelic footballers Gaelic football in Massachusetts Irish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Irish schoolteachers St Brigid's (Dublin) Gaelic footballers St Oliver Plunketts/Eoghan Ruadh Gaelic footballers People educated at St Declan's College, Dublin {{Dublin-gaelic-football-bio-stub