Michael Darragh MacAuley 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 ...

er who plays club football for Ballyboden St Enda's. He played at inter-county level for the Dublin county team from 2010 until 2020, winning eight All-Ireland medals. With Ballyboden St Enda's, he won the 2016 All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship. He also won the

Dublin Senior Football championship The Dublin Senior Football Championship (currently known for sponsorship reasons as the '' Go-Ahead'' Dublin Senior Football Championship) is an annual Gaelic Athletic Association competition between the top Dublin GAA clubs. The winners of t ...

(2009, 2015) and the Leinster Senior Football Club championship (2015). MacAuley was the 2013

GAA/GPA Footballer of the Year The Gaelic Athletic Association & Gaelic Player's Association All Stars Footballer of the Year — known for sponsorship reasons as the PwC GAA/GPA Footballer of the Year — is a Gaelic football award. It is presented annually to the footballer ...

. In 2024, MacAuley took up the position of CEO a
Sanctuary Runners
Ireland.

Playing career

Club

MacAuley plays his club football with Ballyboden St Enda's, with whom he won the

Dublin Senior Football Championship The Dublin Senior Football Championship (currently known for sponsorship reasons as the '' Go-Ahead'' Dublin Senior Football Championship) is an annual Gaelic Athletic Association competition between the top Dublin GAA clubs. The winners of t ...

in 2009.

Inter-county

MacAuley made his senior football debut for Dublin against

Wexford Wexford ( ; archaic Yola dialect, Yola: ''Weiseforthe'') is the county town of County Wexford, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the ...

in the first round of the

O'Byrne Cup The O'Byrne Cup is a Gaelic football competition organized by the Leinster GAA and first staged in 1954. History The competition is named in honour of Matt Byrne (b. 14 February 1870), a former Wicklow GAA club and county officer. By virtue of ...

; he scored a point on his debut. McAuley made his debut in the league against the 2009 All-Ireland Champions Kerry. He scored a decisive point in the game which assured the win for Dublin against Kerry. MacAuley made his Championship debut as a substitute against

in the 2010 Leinster Senior Football Championship. He made his second appearance against Meath in the semi-final of the Leinster football championship, a game in which Dublin were easily beaten by the Royals. MacAuley had his first start for Dublin against Tipperary in a second round qualifier for the All-Ireland Championship. He scored his first Championship goal and point in a game in which he finished with 1-01 of the final score of 1-21 to 1-13 at

Croke Park Croke Park (, ) is a Gaelic games stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Named after Archbishop Thomas Croke, it is referred to as Croker by GAA fans and locals. It serves as both the principal national stadium of Ireland and headquarters of the Gaelic At ...

. MacAuley scored a point in Dublin's eventual exit from that season's All-Ireland Championship at the semi-final stage. MacAuley won his first

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (SFC) () is the premier inter-county competition in Gaelic football. County (Gaelic games), County teams compete against each other and the winner is declared All-Ireland Champions. Organised by the ...

in September 2011, when Dublin beat Kerry at

. He wasn't surprised by the comeback nature of the game, saying: "We had been down before in matches. It wasn't the first time we were down. We actually had a training game the week before when the As played the Bs and it was a very similar situation". His second All-Ireland title came against Mayo in 2013, as did the GAA/GPA Footballer of the Year, when he succeeded

Karl Lacey Karl Lacey (born 10 September 1984) is an Irish Gaelic football coach, manager and former player for Four Masters and the Donegal county team. His county's most decorated individual player, his personal achievements include four All Star awar ...

to the title. On 21 January 2021, MacAuley announced his retirement form inter-county football.

Personal life

After retiring from playing inter county football he visited Hikkaduwa - a surfing town on the south coast of Sri Lanka. During the

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

he and David Hickey formed a group called Dublin Footballers Support Palestine to advocate for Palestinians and to put pressure on the Irish Government to take a stronger stance against Israeli human rights abuses.

Honours

Team

Dublin

(8):

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 ...

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 ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

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 ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

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 ...

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

Leinster Senior Football Championship The Leinster Senior Football Championship, known simply as the Leinster Championship and shortened to Leinster SFC, is an annual inter-county Gaelic football competition organised by the Leinster GAA, Leinster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Asso ...

(10):

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(5): 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018 *

(1):

Ballyboden St Enda's

All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship The All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football tournament which began in season 1970–71. It is the top-tier competition for the senior football clubs of Ireland and London. The current champions are Cuala of D ...

(1):

Leinster Senior Club Football Championship The Leinster Senior Club Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football tournament played on a knockout basis between the senior club championship winners of the competing counties in Leinster. The current holders of the Leinster title are K ...

(2): 2015, 2019 *

(3):

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

Individual

* All Star Awards (2): 2011, 2013 * ''

The Sunday Game ''The Sunday Game'' is RTÉ's main Gaelic games television programme. It is shown on RTÉ2 every Sunday during the Football Championship and Hurling Championship seasons. It is one of RTÉ2's longest-running shows, having been on air since 1 ...

'' Player of the Year (1): 2013 *

(1): 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macauley, Michael Darragh 1986 births Living people All Stars Awards winners (football) Ballyboden St Enda's Gaelic footballers Dublin inter-county Gaelic footballers Winners of eight All-Ireland medals (Gaelic football) 21st-century Irish sportsmen