Philip "Philly" McMahon (born 5 September 1987) 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 for the

Ballymun Kickhams Ballymun Kickhams ( Irish: ''Ciceam Bhaile Munna'' ) is a GAA club in Ballymun, Dublin, Ireland. The club has a clubhouse and its home pitch, ''Pairc Ciceam'', just off the Ballymun (junction 4) exit of the M50. Ballymun also has a full size ...

club and, previously, for the Dublin county team. Since retiring from inter-county football in 2021, McMahon has written for the ''

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 ...

'' and provided commentary for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Playing career

Club

McMahon is a member of the

senior football team. In 2013, Ballymun reached the 2012–13 All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship final. McMahon scored a goal as Ballymun were defeated by

Roscommon GAA The Roscommon County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) () or Roscommon GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic games in County Roscommon. The county board is also responsible for the ...

club St Brigid's by a single point, on a scoreline of 2–11 to 2–10.

Inter-county

McMahon won the

2008 O'Byrne Cup The 2008 O'Byrne Cup was a Gaelic football competition played by the teams of Leinster GAA. The competition differs from the Leinster Senior Football Championship as it also features further education colleges and the winning team does not progre ...

with Dublin, defeating

Longford Longford () is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It had a population of 10,952 at the 2022 census. It is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the county's population lives there. Longford lies at the meeting of ...

in the final. He made his championship debut that year as a substitute against

Louth Louth may refer to: Australia *Hundred of Louth, a cadastral unit in South Australia * Louth, New South Wales, a town * Louth Bay, a bay in South Australia ** Louth Bay, South Australia, a town and locality Canada * Louth, Ontario Ireland * Cou ...

. He played

Interprovincial Championship 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 com ...

football for

Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...

and won two

Dublin Under 21 Football Championship The Dublin Under 21 Football Championship is an annual Gaelic Athletic Association club competition between the under-21 Gaelic footballers of Dublin clubs. The current (2022) under 21 champions of Dublin are Ballinteer St. John's who beat Ba ...

titles with Ballymun. He was named on the 2010

GPA Gaelic Team of the Year The GPA Gaelic Team of the Year known for sponsorship reason as The Opel Gaelic Team of the Year awards were an awards ceremony to honour the performances of Gaelic Athletic Association players. The awards were judged and awarded by the Gaelic Pl ...

. He replaced James McCarthy as a substitute in the second half of the 2011 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final, a game which Dublin won by 1–12 to 1–11 against Kerry. On 22 September 2013, McMahon made his first start of the championship in the All-Ireland SFC final. He was a key performer as Dublin defeated Mayo by a scoreline of 2–12 to 1–14. McMahon helped Dublin to win the 2015 All-Ireland SFC final. Throughout the season he became a strong attacking threat despite being named at left corner-back. He scored 1–2 in the replayed semi final against Mayo, notably holding Aidan O'Shea to a single point over both games. McMahon was a key performer in the final where Dublin defeated reigning champions Kerry by a scoreline of 0–12 to 0–9, with McMahon scoring a point in the first half while keeping marker

Colm Cooper Colm "the Gooch" Cooper (born 3 June 1983) is an Irish Gaelic footballer whose National Football League (Ireland), league and All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, championship career at senior level with the Kerry county football team, Kerr ...

scoreless. McMahon received his first All Star Award, while he was also named on the shortlist for GAA Footballer of the Year, ultimately won by teammate

Jack McCaffrey Jack McCaffrey (born 19 October 1993) is a Gaelic footballer who plays for Clontarf GAA, Clontarf. Early and personal life His father Noel McCaffrey, Noel also represented Dublin in football. McCaffrey attended Belvedere College private school ...

. McMahon was again a key performer as Dublin again defeated Mayo after a replay in the 2016 All-Ireland SFC final by a single point and a scoreline of 1–15 to 1–14 to retain the

Sam Maguire Cup The Sam Maguire Cup (), often referred to as Sam or The Sam, is a trophy awarded annually by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) to the team that wins the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, the main competition in the sport of Gaelic fo ...

. McMahon received his second All Star for his performances. In 2017, Kerry narrowly defeated Dublin in the National League final by a single point. Dublin then went on to win a record seventh consecutive Leinster SFC titles. On 17 September, McMahon was heavily involved as Dublin claimed an historic third consecutive All-Ireland SFC titles, with another narrow 1–17 to 1–16 victory against Mayo in the 2017 All-Ireland SFC final. Having been outplayed in the first half, Dublin turned the game around to win courtesy of a 75th minute

Dean Rock Dean Rock (born 26 February 1990) is an Irish Gaelic footballer who was a senior member of the Dublin county team from 2013 to 2023. He has represented Dublin at all grades, Minor, Junior, U21 and Senior. He is a noted free taker and scored t ...

free. McMahon announced his retirement from inter-county football on 17 December 2021.

International rules

McMahon made his debut in the

2015 International Rules Series The 2015 International Rules Series (officially the 2015 EirGrid International Rules Test) was contested between Gaelic footballers from Ireland international rules football team, Ireland and Australian rules football, Australian footballers fro ...

. Ireland edged out the single game series against a strong

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 ...

side on a scoreline of 56–52.

Other work

McMahon writes regularly for the ''

''. He has provided television commentary for the

. McMahon set up a charity called Half Time Talk, which aims to motivate young adults with social problems. He has been involved with charity fundraising, such as the

Focus Ireland Focus Ireland is a nonprofit organisation based in Dublin, Ireland that provides services for people who are homeless and people at risk of homelessness in Ireland. It was founded by Sister Stanislaus Kennedy in 1985, and is one of the largest h ...

"Shine A Light Night" to raise money for homeless families. He is a business owner and operates multiple gyms. He also launched a health food company. In November 2012, McMahon was the

strength and conditioning coach A strength and conditioning coach (also known as an S&C coach) is a physical performance professional who uses exercise prescription to improve the performance of competitive Athlete, athletes or Sports club, athletic teams. This is achieved throug ...

Shamrock Rovers Shamrock Rovers Football Club is an Irish professional Association football, football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is List of football clubs by competit ...

. In May 2021, McMahon began working with the

Bohemians Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers. * Bohemian style, a f ...

club's first team as a performance coach. In 2024, he was approached by the Derry County Board to replace

Mickey Harte Mickey Harte (born 1954) is an Irish Gaelic football manager and former player. He has been joint-manager of Offaly since 2024. Harte managed the Tyrone county team from 2003 until his resignation in 2020, at which time he was the longest ...

as manager of the senior team; he declined.

Personal life

McMahon changed his surname from Caffrey, his mother's name, to McMahon, his father's name, whom he was named after. His father died from cancer at the age of 64 in 2018. McMahon's brother died in 2012 from a drug overdose, and McMahon has spoken about the effects of drugs in his community. He has spoken in support of safe injection centres, and criticised

Fine Gael Fine Gael ( ; ; ) is a centre-right, liberal-conservative, Christian democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil Éireann. The party had a member ...

Paul Kehoe Paul Kehoe (born 11 January 1973) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Wexford constituency from 2002 to 2024. He was appointed Chair of the Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Re ...

in 2022 for his usage of the term "druggies". McMahon has spoken openly about having had a

hair transplantation Hair transplantation is a surgery, surgical technique that removes hair follicles from one part of the body, called the 'donor site', to a bald or balding part of the body known as the 'recipient site'. The technique is primarily used to treat ...

. He is a

saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

. In 2017, after winning his fifth All-Ireland Senior Championship, McMahon released his autobiography called ''The Choice'', which was co-written by sports journalist Niall Kelly. The book won the 2017 Eir Sports Book of the Year award in December 2017. The book also won the ''Sports Book of the Year'' award at the 2017 Irish Book Awards. He married his long-term girlfriend Sarah Lacey in December 2019.

Honours

Team

Dublin

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 ...

(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 ...

(12):

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 ...

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 ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

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 *

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 ...

(1):

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

Ballymun Kickhams

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 ...

(1): 2012-13 *

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 ...

(2):

Ireland

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 ...

(1):

DCU

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 ...

(2): 2010, 2012

Individual

* All Star Awards (2): 2015, 2016

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McMahon, Philip 1987 births Living people All Stars Awards winners (football) Ballymun Kickhams Gaelic footballers Bohemian F.C. non-playing staff DCU Gaelic footballers Dublin inter-county Gaelic footballers Gaelic football backs Gaelic games commentators Irish Independent people Shamrock Rovers F.C. non-playing staff Strength and conditioning coaches Winners of eight All-Ireland medals (Gaelic football) 21st-century Irish sportsmen