Pat Critchley is a sportsman from

County Laois County Laois ( ; ) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922. The modern county takes its name from Loígis, a medieval kingdom. Hist ...

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 ...

. He has played at senior level in

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 ...

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

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

. He is a member of Portlaoise GAA club, with whom he won eight Laois Senior county championships - four each in hurling and football. He guided IT Carlow to the Sigerson cup final 2020.

Playing career

Critchley has won one Leinster and one All-Ireland club football championship with Portlaoise. Critchley also won one Limerick county Football championship. He was awarded Laois's sole hurling All Stars Award in 1985 and remains the only Laois player to receive this award.

Coaching career

Critchley has coached Scoil Chriost Ri, Portlaoise basketball teams to eleven All-Ireland finals, winning five, and led the school to an All-Ireland football title. Critchley occupies a full-time coaching and development role with the Laois GAA County Board and is the instigator of the successful Setanta Hurling program and the follow on Cuchulainn program.

Personal life

Pat was a physical education and English teacher at Scoil Chriost Ri, Portlaoise. His autobiography is called ''Hungry Hill''.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Dual players Gaelic football coaches Hurling coaches Laois GAA Laois inter-county hurlers Portlaoise Gaelic footballers Portlaoise hurlers {{Laois-hurling-bio-stub