Neil McGee (born 13 November 1985) 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 for

Gaoth Dobhair Gweedore ( , officially known by its Irish language name, ) is a Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking) district, and parish, located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of County Donegal in the north-west of Ireland. It stretches some from Glasserchoo ...

and, formerly, both the Donegal county team and the

Ireland international rules football team The Ireland international rules football team is the representative team for Ireland in international rules football, a compromise between Gaelic football and Australian rules football. The team is made up of Irish players from the Gaelic Athl ...

. From

Gweedore Gweedore ( , officially known by its Irish language name, ) is a Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking) district, and parish, located on the Atlantic coast of County Donegal in the north-west of Ireland. It stretches some from Glasserchoo and Bloody For ...

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...

, he won three

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 ...

s, one

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 ...

title, five

Ulster Senior Football Championship The Ulster Senior Football Championship is an inter-county competition for Gaelic football teams in the Irish province of Ulster. It is organised by the Ulster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and begins in April. The final is ...

titles and one

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 ...

title with his county, an

Ulster Senior Club Football Championship The Ulster Senior Club Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football tournament organised by Ulster GAA. It is played between the Senior championship winners from each of the nine counties of Ulster. The competition was first held in 1968 an ...

title with his club and two

International Rules Series The International Rules Series is a senior men's international rules football competition between the Australia international rules football team (selected by the Australian Football League) and the Ireland international rules football team ...

with his country.

Playing career

Club

He made his championship debut for his club against Na Piarsaigh on 23 June 2002. By 2023 he had won three

Donegal Senior Football Championship The Donegal Senior Football Championship (abbreviated as Donegal SFC) is an annual football competition organised by Donegal GAA and contested by the highest-level clubs, to determine the best team in County Donegal. Since 2016, it has been know ...

(SFC) titles with his club: in 2002, 2006 and 2018; and he had played for his club in 22 consecutive championship campaigns, including in 32 consecutive championship games between 2002 and 2009.Statistics for McGee's club championship games as far as the 2023 Donegal Senior Football Championship final compiled by Fr Seán Ó Gallchóir and published as follows: Ahead of the 2023 Donegal Senior Football Championship final, he had made 98 appearances in the club championship (93 in the Donegal SFC and 5 in the Ulster and All-Ireland Club SFC). McGee, as noted above, won his first Donegal SFC title in 2002. In 2006, his club returned to the Donegal SFC final. McGee played as his team won a 14th title, in one of the worst Donegal county finals ever. McGee won the 2018 Donegal Senior Football Championship, a first for the club since 2006. He then played during Gaoth Dobhair's first ever

-winning campaign later in

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, defeating Crossmaglen Rangers in the Ulster semi-final at

Healy Park Healy Park (known as O'Neills Healy Park for sponsorship reasons) is a GAA stadium in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland and is named after a GAA clubman from Omagh, Michael Healy. Healy Park is the home ground of Omagh St. Enda's and th ...

Omagh Omagh (; from , meaning 'the virgin plain') is the county town of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is situated where the rivers River Drumragh, Drumragh and Camowen River, Camowen meet to form the River Strule, Strule. Northern Ireland's c ...

to qualify for the final. In the final against Scotstown, Gaoth Dobhair won. He has often played with his brother

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Inter-county

Brian McEniff Brian McEniff (born 1 December 1942) is a former Gaelic football player, manager and administrator. McEniff played as a wing-back for the St Joseph's combination of clubs from Bundoran and Ballyshannon. He won seven Donegal Senior Football ...

gave McGee his Donegal senior debut against

Fermanagh Historically, Fermanagh (), as opposed to the modern County Fermanagh, was a kingdom of Gaelic Ireland, associated geographically with present-day County Fermanagh. ''Fir Manach'' originally referred to a distinct kin group of alleged Laigin or ...

in the 2005

Dr McKenna Cup The Dr McKenna Cup is an annual Gaelic football competition played between Counties of Ireland, counties and List of universities in Northern Ireland, universities in the province of Ulster GAA, Ulster. It is the secondary Gaelic football compe ...

on 2 January 2005. He played in the 2006 Ulster Senior Football Championship final 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 ...

. McGee was part of the Donegal senior team that won the county's first

against Mayo in 2007. It was the first piece of silverware the county senior team had lifted since 1992. In

Jim McGuinness Jim McGuinness (born 16 November 1972) is a Gaelic football coach, and former player, who won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship as a player with, and later manager of, the Donegal county team. Since 2023, he has been manager, for ...

's first game in charge of Donegal, a drab 2011 National Football League draw with the perennially underachieving

Sligo Sligo ( ; , meaning 'abounding in shells') is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of 20,608 in 2022, it is the county's largest urban centre (constituting 2 ...

, McGee pulled a hamstring, was moved to the full-forward line and scored a goal in the latest manifestation of Sligo's notorious inability to succeed. McGee was out injured for four weeks after that game but when he returned he established himself as Donegal's first-choice full-back in the team's march towards the

2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final The 2012 All-Ireland Football Championship final, the 125th event of its kind and the culmination of the 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, was played at Croke Park, Dublin, on 23 September 2012. Donegal and Mayo, widely considere ...

. Donegal won. He scored a goal against Sligo in the 2011 National League. In 2011, McGee won his first

award. He added another in 2012. He also won his first Ulster SFC in 2011. This was followed by his second in 2012. He attended the Football Tour of New York. In 2013, McGee made his 100th appearance for Donegal in the county's opening National Football League against

Kildare Kildare () is a town in County Kildare, Ireland. , its population was 10,302, making it the 7th largest town in County Kildare. It is home to Kildare Cathedral, historically the site of an important abbey said to have been founded by Saint ...

, becoming the sixth footballer then playing for the team to reach that mark following Christy Toye, Colm McFadden, Rory Kavanagh, Karl Lacey and McGee's own brother Eamon (they were also the first set of brothers to ever reach 100 Donegal appearances). He won his third Ulster SFC in 2014. In 2016, he lost his appeal against the red card and a subsequent two-match ban picked up in the Ulster Championship quarter-final win over Fermanagh. Two years later, he lost his appeal against the red card he picked up for an alleged knee up the back of an opponent in the Ulster SFC semi-final win over Down. Thus he missed Donegal's

2018 Ulster Senior Football Championship The 2018 Ulster Senior Football Championship was the 130th instalment of the annual Ulster Senior Football Championship organised by Ulster GAA. It is one of the four provincial competitions of the 2018 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. T ...

final victory over Fermanagh. He equalled Colm McFadden's record of 173 appearances for Donegal when he came on as a second half substitute in the final round of the 2019 National Football League, a victory over Kildare. He then broke McFadden's record with his 174th appearance for his county against Meath as a substitute in the final at Croke Park, also won by Donegal. He won his fifth Ulster SFC in 2019. Shortly before his 37th birthday, and with a record 195 appearances for the team, McGee announced his retirement from inter-county football in an exclusive interview given to Frank Craig and published in the ''

Donegal News The ''Donegal News'' (also known as ''Derry People/Donegal News'' and formerly ''Derry People'') is a twice-weekly local newspaper in the northwest of the island of Ireland, first published in 1902. Originally covering Derry, Northern Ireland, i ...

'' on 29 September 2022.

Inter-provincial

McGee played for

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

in the Inter-Provincial Series.

International rules

McGee thrice represented

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 ...

against

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 the

: in

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 ...

and

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 ...

. Ireland won the first two and lost the third. According to Eoin Liston, who has worked with any of the Irish teams, McGee was "tailor-made" for international rules football.

Coaching career

In August 2023, McGee was confirmed as being on the backroom team of

, as McGuinness began his second spell as manager of the Donegal senior team.

Honours

;Donegal *

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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 ...

* National Football League Division 1:

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

* National Football League Division 2:

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

;Gaoth Dobhair *

: 2018 *

: 2002, 2006, 2018 ;Ulster *

Railway Cup The GAA Interprovincial Championship () or Railway Cup (''Corn an Iarnróid'') is the name of two annual Gaelic football and hurling competitions held between the provinces of Ireland. The Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster GAA teams are co ...

: 2012 ;Colleges *

Sigerson Cup The Sigerson Cup is the trophy for the premier Gaelic football championship among Higher Education institutions (Universities, Colleges and Institutes of Technology) in Ireland. It traditionally begins in mid January and ends in late February. T ...

: 2004 ;Ireland *

** ''Runner-up'':

;Individual *

: 2011, 2012, 2014 * ''Irish News'' Ulster All-Star: 2011, 2012 * ''

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 ...

'' Team of the Year: 2012

References

External links

Official profile
*
Neil McGee
at gaainfo.com
"Neil McGee: 'I play better on the edge. When you're in there, it's survival'."
his county minor trial and playing in the delayed 2002 Donegal SFC final aged 16 in April 2003 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mcgee, Neil 1985 births Living people Donegal inter-county Gaelic footballers Gaelic football backs Gaoth Dobhair Gaelic footballers Irish international rules football players Ulster inter-provincial Gaelic footballers Winners of one All-Ireland medal (Gaelic football)