Stephen Attride (born 1993) is a

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by ki ...

er who has played for the Killeshin club and the Laois county team, serving as

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of his county for the 2017, 2018 and 2019 seasons. Attride was primarily interested in athletics from a young age, specifically middle-/

long-distance running Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely aerobic in nature and requires stamina as well as mental strength. Within endurance running comes two ...

, at which he competed both nationally and internationally. However, while in his last year at school, he developed

shin splints A shin splint, also known as medial tibial stress syndrome, is pain along the inside edge of the shinbone (tibia) due to inflammation of tissue in the area. Generally this is between the middle of the lower leg and the ankle. The pain may be dull ...

and this affected his future progress in athletics. He attended

Dublin City University Dublin City University (abbreviated as DCU) ( ga, Ollscoil Chathair Bhaile Átha Cliath) is a Third-level education in the Republic of Ireland, university based on the Northside, Dublin, Northside of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Cre ...

(DCU), where he played for the university football team. Age given as 24 in July 2018. Initially playing at wing-forward, Attride developed into a corner-back. Laois manager

Justin McNulty Justin McNulty MLA (born 15 November 1974) is an Irish Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) politician, a former Gaelic football manager, and a former player at senior level for the Armagh county team. He has sat in the Northern Irelan ...

noticed his progress and invited him onto the county panel in 2013. He scored a goal against

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

in Laois's

2016 Leinster Senior Football Championship The 2016 Leinster Senior Football Championship was the 2016 installment of the annual Leinster Senior Football Championship held under the auspices of Leinster GAA. The competition ran from 14 May 2016 to 17 July 2016. Dublin came into the compe ...

quarter-final loss to the then

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (SFC) ( ga, Craobh Shinsir Peile na hÉireann) is the premier competition in Gaelic football. An annual tournament organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), it is contested by the county ...

title holders. In 2017, the then Laois manager Peter Creedon appointed Attride as

of the team. Creedon's successor John Sugrue allowed Attride to retain the county captaincy. Sugrue led Laois to the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

Division 4 title in his first year. It meant that Attride became the first Laois captain since Ian Fitzgerald to raise a trophy aloft in the

Hogan Stand Hoganstand.com is a news website and the online face of the monthly Gaelic games magazine ''Hogan Stand'', which is distributed throughout Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atla ...

Croke Park Croke Park ( ga, Páirc an Chrócaigh, ) 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 h ...

. Laois then advanced to a first

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 Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association (G ...

final since 2007. However, Attride was unavailable. While blocking a ball during stoppage time of his county's

2018 Leinster Senior Football Championship The 2018 Leinster Senior Football Championship was the 2018 installment of the annual Leinster Senior Football Championship organised by Leinster GAA. Dublin, the defending champions, won their eighth consecutive championship title, defeating La ...

semi-final victory over

Carlow Carlow ( ; ) is the county town of County Carlow, in the south-east of Ireland, from Dublin. At the 2016 census, it had a combined urban and rural population of 24,272. The River Barrow flows through the town and forms the historic bounda ...

at Croke Park, Attride collided with the knee of an opponent, was knocked unconscious, stretchered from the field of play and spent a night in the Mater Hospital after sustaining a double fracture to his skull. The injury also ruled him out for the remainder of the season. Attride's teammate Ross Munnelly and former Laois player

Colm Parkinson Colm "Wooly" Parkinson (born 1978 in Meelick, Portlaoise) is a retired Irish Gaelic footballer, and journalist. Playing career Club Parkinson was a decorated underage player with Portlaoise, winning county titles at every underage grade befor ...

both praised Attride's intervention. He later recovered. Attride took a break from teaching (he teaches

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explora ...

and

science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

) at Knockbeg College to travel to Australia ahead of the 2020 season. He was accompanied by his girlfriend and others he knew. Age given as 27 in November 2020. He took up a teaching position at Bondi High School and trained with the Clann na Gael club.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Attride, Stephen 1993 births Living people Alumni of Dublin City University DCU Gaelic footballers Gaelic football backs Irish expatriate sportspeople in Australia Irish male long-distance runners Irish male middle-distance runners Irish schoolteachers Laois inter-county Gaelic footballers Science teachers Athletes from County Laois