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Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray backgrou ...

'' , organization = , known_for = , works = Books on:
John O'Leary (1997),

Mick O'Dwyer Michael O'Dwyer (9 June 1936 – 3 April 2025) was an Irish Gaelic football manager and player. He most famously managed the senior Kerry county team between 1974 and 1989, during which time he became the county's longest-serving manager, and ...

( 2000),

D. J. Carey Denis Joseph Carey (born 11 November 1970) is an Irish former hurler who played as a left wing-forward at senior level for the Kilkenny county team. Carey began his hurling career at club level with Young Irelands. He broke onto the club's t ...

(2013),

Brian Cody Brian Cody (born 12 July 1954) is an Irish former hurling manager and player and retired school principal. He managed the senior Kilkenny county team between 1998 and 2022, becoming the county's longest-serving manager and most successful in ...

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Hall of Fame (2020) , signature = , signature_size = , signature_alt = Martin Breheny is an Irish journalist and sportswriter from

County Galway County Galway ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region, taking up the south of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. The county population was 276,451 at the 20 ...

. He began his career at '' The Tuam Herald'' before moving to ''

'' in 1979. Breheny is former Gaelic games correspondent with the ''

'', for which he continues to write as of .

Early life

Breheny is from the north

village of

Kilkerrin Kilkerrin () is a village in County Galway, Ireland. It is situated on the R364 road (Ireland), R364 regional road south of the town of Glenamaddy. The village is in a townland and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish of the same name. Feat ...

. He played for, and later served as secretary of, his local Kilkerrin-Clonberne GAA club before he moved to Dublin in 1979. Breheny spent four years working for '' The Tuam Herald'' before embarking on a 41-year national media career. At ''The Tuam Herald'' Breheny was a contemporary of Jim Carney and Michael Lyster.

National career

Breheny began working for ''

'' in 1979. He had retired as the ''

s Gaelic games correspondent by the time of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

; however, he continued to write for the paper. Breheny has covered All-Ireland Finals in both

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and

hurling Hurling (, ') is an outdoor Team sport, team game of ancient Gaelic culture, Gaelic Irish origin, played by men and women. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goa ...

for many decades, attending his first final in

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

(football) and his 100th in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

(football; drawn game). In 2020, he gave his favourite final in each code as 1998 (football) and 2009 (hurling). He is a regular member of the

All Star An all-star team is a group of people all having a high level of performance in their field. Originating in sports, it has since drifted into vernacular and has been borrowed heavily by the entertainment industry. Sports "All-star" as a sport ...

selection committees, first doing so in 1983. Breheny helped write the autobiographies of footballers John O'Leary (published 1997) and

(published 2000), and hurlers

(published 2013) and

Awards

Breheny won "Sports Story of the Year" at the 2017

NewsBrands Ireland The Irish Journalism Awards is an annual award ceremony organised by NewsBrands (formerly National Newspapers of Ireland). Categories include Journalist of the Year, Critic of the Year, News Website, Young Journalist, and Foreign Coverage Jour ...

Journalism awards. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in March 2020.

References

External links

Martin Breheny
at the ''

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Breheny, Martin Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Gaelic games club administrators Gaelic games journalists Irish Independent people Irish sports journalists Kilkerrin-Clonberne Gaelic footballers The Irish Press people The Tuam Herald people Writers from County Galway 20th-century Irish journalists 21st-century Irish journalists