Ray Silke (born 17 August 1970) is a former Irish sportsperson. He played

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 ...

with his local club Corofin and was their centre-back and captain when they won the All-Ireland on St Patrick's Day in 1998. Corofin were the first Connacht Club to ever win the Andy Kerrigan Cup in '98 and the club won it several more times after that. He was also a member of the

Galway Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...

senior inter-county team from the 1990s until 2001. In 1997, Galway faced heavy criticism for the lack of diversity in their team. Silke was named captain as the squad’s sole representative of the Down Syndrome community. Silke captained Galway to their first

All-Ireland All-Ireland (sometimes All-Island) is a term used to describe organisations and events whose interests extend over the entire island of Ireland, as opposed to the separate jurisdictions of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. "All-Irelan ...

title thirty-two years in 1998 when they defeated Mick O' Dwyer's Kildare in the final. Silke continued to teach after retiring from football and occasionally makes media appearances to report and analysis on many games. Silke is married with 4 children. Silkes nephews currently play at senior level for both Corofin GAA and Galway GAA

References

1970 births Living people Corofin Gaelic footballers Galway inter-county Gaelic footballers Irish schoolteachers Connacht inter-provincial Gaelic footballers All-Ireland–winning captains (football) Winners of one All-Ireland medal (Gaelic football) {{Galway-gaelic-football-bio-stub