Harry McNulty (born 5 March 1993) is an Irish former rugby union player. He most notably played for and captained 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 ...

Early life

McNulty was born in

Bahrain Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...

to Irish parents. His father worked in financial services and is a former Bahrain Rugby Club player. His mother was a

flight attendant A flight attendant is a member of the aircrew whose primary responsibility is ensure the safety of passengers in the cabin of an aircraft across all stages of flight. Their secondary duty is to see to the comfort of passengers. Flight attenda ...

working for the then

King of Bahrain The king of the Kingdom of Bahrain ( ) is the monarch and head of state of the Kingdom of Bahrain. The House of Khalifa has been the ruling family since 1783. Between 1783 and 1971, the Bahraini monarch held the title of hakim, and, from 1971 ...

, Sheikh

Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa Isa bin Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa (; 3 June 1933 – 6 March 1999) was a Bahraini royal who served as the first Emir of Bahrain from 1961 until his death in 1999 (after having previously ruled as Hakim of Bahrain until 16 August 1971). Bo ...

. He has a younger brother, Sean McNulty, who is also a rugby player. The family lived in London for three years, then moved to the United States, where they lived for 10 years. In the United States, McNulty discovered he loved

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

and played hockey in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. He played with the Rye Rangers. At age 14, McNulty's family moved back to Bahrain and from 2006 to 2011 he attended

Rockwell College Rockwell College (), founded in 1864, is a voluntary day and boarding Catholic secondary school near Cashel, County Tipperary in Ireland. The school has a rugby tradition and has won the Munster Schools Senior Cup 26 times and the Munster ...

, a boarding school in

County Tipperary County Tipperary () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary (tow ...

, for secondary school. At Rockwell, McNulty played rugby for the first time. He was on the school team that finished runner-up in the 2010 Munster Senior Cup, and then won the 2011 Munster Senior Cup by defeating Presentation Brothers College.

University and club rugby

McNulty then played for Garryowen. He joined the Munster Academy for the 2012–13 season, but left the Munster Academy at the end of the 2013–14 season. From 2012 to 2014, McNulty attended

University of Limerick University of Limerick (UL) () is a Public university, public research university institution in Limerick, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Founded in 1972, as the National Institute for Higher Education, Limerick, it became a university in Septemb ...

, then transferred to

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in

food science Food science (or bromatology) is the basic science and applied science of food; its scope starts at overlap with agricultural science and nutritional science and leads through the scientific aspects of food safety and food processing, informing ...

in 2017. As part of that degree, he lived in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

in 2015 where he studied at the

University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...

. During college, McNulty played with the

Dublin University Football Club Dublin University Football Club (DUFC) is the rugby union club of Trinity College Dublin, Trinity College, in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, which plays in 2024–25 All-Ireland League (rugby union)#Division 1B, Division 1B of the All-Ir ...

, winning the 2012 club sevens competition. In 2016, McNulty played club rugby for UCD in Division 1A of the All-Ireland League, under head coach Andy Skehan. In 2020 McNulty signed with

Major League Rugby Major League Rugby (MLR) is a professional rugby union competition in the United States. The league comprises 11 teams. While operating outside of the governance and oversight of the national governing body, the league is officially sanctioned ...

newcomer

LA Giltinis The LA Giltinis were a Major League Rugby team based in Los Angeles, California, United States. The team was announced in 2020 and entered the league in the 2021 season as an expansion franchise. Owned by Adam Gilchrist and Loyals Rugby, the t ...

who also signed his brother

Sean Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Hiberno-English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name '' Yohanan'' (), Seán ( anglicized as '' Shaun/ Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; a ...

Ireland national rugby sevens team

In 2016, McNulty was part of the

when they attempted unsuccessfully to qualify for the 2016 Olympics. In 2017, McNulty remained with the Ireland squad where he played in the Rugby Europe 2017 Sevens Grand Prix Series. McNulty was Ireland's leading try-scorer at the 2017 Moscow Sevens with six tries. McNulty represented Ireland at the

2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens The 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens was the seventh edition of the Rugby World Cup Sevens. Organized by World Rugby, it was held at AT&T Park, now known as Oracle Park, in San Francisco, United States. A total of 84 matches were played over three d ...

, where Ireland finished ninth. McNulty was part of the Ireland squad at the

2019 Hong Kong Sevens The 2019 Hong Kong Sevens was a rugby sevens tournament that took place at the Hong Kong Stadium between the 5–7 April 2019. It was the 44th edition of the Hong Kong Sevens, and the seventh tournament of the 2018–19 World Rugby Sevens Series ...

qualifier, where Ireland won the tournament to advance to "core team" status for the 2019–20 World Rugby Sevens Series. McNulty was a member of the

that qualified for the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

. He also competed for

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 the

2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens The 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens was the eighth and final edition of the Rugby World Cup Sevens organised by World Rugby. The 2022 tournament, comprising 24 men's and 16 women's teams as previously, was played over three days in one venue in Sep ...

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

. He led

at the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Other work and activities

McNulty is an accomplished photographer, sharing his art via Instagram. His work includes self-portraiture, landscapes and night sky photography. In April 2019, McNulty won an all expenses paid

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

apprenticeship with

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line Royal Caribbean International (RCI), formerly Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL), is a cruise line founded in 1968 in Norway and organized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group since 1997. Based in Miami, Florida, it is the Lis ...

. In April 2019, McNulty – who is a long-time avid photographer – won a position as a

apprentice, which funded travel around the world for three weeks during the summer of 2019. In addition to being all-expenses paid, the position had a weekly salary. As a Shore Explorer, McNulty visited shore-based locations around the world as part of a promotion of land-based offerings of the cruise line. McNulty documented his trip with photographs he posted on Instagram. He used a

GoPro GoPro, Inc. (marketed as GoPro and sometimes stylized as GoPRO) is an American technology company founded in 2002 by Nick Woodman. It manufactures action cameras and develops its own mobile apps and video editing software, video-editing software ...

camera for much of the video he shot. In his free time, McNulty has been involved in the

Operation Smile Operation Smile is a nonprofit medical service organization founded in 1982 by husband and wife William P. Magee Jr. and Kathleen (Kathy) S. Magee. It is headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia. In addition to providing cleft lip and palate rep ...

charity. In 2020, McNulty joined TV broadcaster Darren Kennedy, stylist Lawson Mpame, Men's Circle Facilitator Darragh Stewart and coach Pat Divily as ambassadors for Movember.

References

External links

* *
Harry McNulty
at

Irish Rugby Football Union The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) () is the body managing rugby union in the island of Ireland (both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland). The IRFU has its head office at 10/12 Lansdowne Road and home ground at Aviva Stadium, where a ...

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:McNulty, Harry Irish rugby union players Ireland international rugby sevens players Garryowen Football Club players Munster Rugby players 1993 births Living people Dublin University Football Club players University College Dublin R.F.C. players University of Queensland Rugby Club players Olympic rugby sevens players for Ireland Rugby sevens players at the 2020 Summer Olympics LA Giltinis players Rugby union flankers Rugby sevens players at the 2023 European Games European Games medalists in rugby sevens European Games gold medalists for Ireland Irish expatriate rugby union players in the United States Rugby sevens players at the 2024 Summer Olympics