Brolly played club football for St Canice's Dungiven for most of his career, before transferring to St Brigid's GAC in Belfast.
He usually played as right corner forward and was renowned for his accurate point-taking, goal-scoring ability, pace and ability to take on opponents. He was also known for his goal celebration of blowing kisses to the crowd, and had his nose broken twice during his career immediately after scoring goals.[3]
After retiring as a player, Brolly fashioned a niche for himself in television punditry, most prominently with RTÉ on The Sunday Game until 2019.
Early and family life
Brolly is the son of noted traditional singer and LimavadySinn Féin councillor Anne Brolly. His father Francie, also a traditional musician, played Gaelic football for Derry in the 1960s, and was later a Sinn Féin councillor and MLA.[4]
Brolly boarded in Saint Patrick's Grammar School, Armagh where he played basketball for Ireland as a schoolboy.[5] After school he progressed to Trinity College Dublin to read law graduating in 1991 with a Bachelors in Laws degree,[6] before doing a postgraduate course at Queen's University Belfast. He was a prominent member of the Dublin University Central Athletic Club (DUCAC) in his Trinity days,[7] and became a member of the student executive.[citation needed]
Brolly's first wife was Emma-Rose McCann[8] from Ballymena, daughter of the famous Jack McCann,[9] historian, raconteur and proprietor of Jack McCann & Son Solicitors, whom he met in Trinity where she studied French and English literature[10] before qualifying as a solicitor.[8] Emma is a first cousin of the actor Liam Neeson.[10] The couple have five children. Brolly is now married to podcaster and radio presenter Laurita Blewitt. They married at the Ice House Hotel in County Mayo in August 2022.[11][12]
Joe Brolly is a first cousin of Derry player Liam Hinphey and Monaghan player Vincent Corey, and second cousin to Tyrone footballers Colm and Plunkett Donaghy.[13]
Playing career
County
Brolly made his Derry Senior debut against Cavan in the 1990 National League.[2] In 1993 he was part of the Derry side that won the Ulster Championship and the county's first All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. His All Stars Award recognition surprisingly came in the relatively barren years of 1996 and 1997.[14] He was top scorer in the 1997 Ulster Championship with 3–15 (24 points).[15] Brolly added a second Ulster Senior Football Championship in 1998, in the final of which he scored the clinching goal in the last minute.[16] Derry won the National Football League four times in a nine-year period from 1992 to 2000 (1992, 1995, 1996, 2000), with Brolly being part of all four. Brolly and Derry finished runners-up to Offaly in the 1998 National League decider.[17]
Club
As a 21-year-old, Brolly was part of Dungiven's Derry Senior Football Championship success in 1991.[citation needed] Brolly won another Derry Championship medal in 1997, and also won the Ulster Club Championship. He was top scorer in that year's Derry Championship with 1–25 (28 points) and was man of the match in the final at Celtic Park.
It was in the Sigerson Cup that Joe Brolly first appeared on the national stage. He won his only inter-varsity medal in 1992, as a member of Queen's victorious Ryan Cup team.[16]
Joe Brolly (right), with other Irish language enthusiasts, taken at a 2011 event advocating that people learn the language
Brolly was born into a family and community with a strong political culture. Both his parents were members of Sinn Féin and became elected politicians, and he has acknowledged that the republican movement and the GAA were the dominant influences in his early environment. He has described how republican actions during the Troubles were often greeted with a sense of triumph in his community,[32] but he has also been clear in stating that he regards the taking of human life as abhorrent.[32] He has reflected on this tension by linking his decision to donate a kidney in 2012 partly out of a desire to atone for the violence committed by people close to him.[33]
Brolly has repeatedly emphasised that he has never supported Sinn Féin at the ballot box, instead voting in the past for the cross-community Northern Ireland Women's Coalition and, more recently, for the SDLP.[33] He has described himself as a "very, very moderate nationalist"[34] and a "political atheist",[35] sceptical of party structures, while also suggesting that he might one day run for a political office.[32] Brolly rejects the legitimacy of Northern Ireland, describing it as unsustainable and arguing that Britain has little real concern for unionists.[36] In 2019, Brolly publicly criticised Sinn Féin for abstentionism at Westminster, arguing that the party was failing to fulfil its political responsibilities and suggesting that it should end the policy, while also defending its decision to collapse the devolved institutions in response to the Democratic Unionist Party’s actions.[34] He has been critical of the DUP more broadly, portraying the party as sectarian, xenophobic and homophobic, and has expressed concern about its handling of issues such as climate change and cultural matters like the Irish language.[35][34]
In cultural matters, Brolly defends the traditional practices of the GAA, including the flying of the Irish tricolour and the singing of the national anthem at matches, arguing that these are central to the association’s identity.[37] He has also defended the practice of naming clubs after hunger strikers or republican paramilitaries, describing such decisions as matters for local communities rather than outside interference.[38] At the same time, he has spoken of the importance of reconciliation and cooperation, welcoming outreach initiatives and supporting engagement between the GAA and the Police Service of Northern Ireland.[37]
In his professional career as a barrister, Brolly has acted for republican clients, including individuals facing high-profile prosecutions connected to the legacy of the Troubles. He appeared as Counsel in a UK Supreme Court case in 2011[39] that established a right to compensation for a miscarriage of justice without the requirement to prove the innocence of the wrongly convicted person (in this instance the Derry republicans Eamonn McDermott and Raymond McCartney).[40] In February 2024, Brolly joined legal action on behalf of Belfast-based Irish republican rap group Kneecap after the UK government blocked funding previously approved through the Music Export Growth Scheme. The group stated their application had been independently approved but was subsequently overruled by a government minister, reportedly due to objections to the group’s political stance, including support for Irish unity. Kneecap and Brolly would go on to win the case.[41][42]
↑ Brolly, Joe (4 September 2009). "Bread and butter of the club". Gaelic Life.
↑ Brolly, Joe (26 October 2007). "Liquid asset the obvious solution". Gaelic Life. p.48.
↑ Said by Michael Lyster and Brolly during the RTÉ Sunday Game Live coverage of the All-Ireland Qualifiers Round 3 games. Down versus Wexford and Tyrone versus Mayo. (The Tommy Murphy Cup final had preceded the two games) – 2 August 2008.
↑ , R (on the application of Adams) (FC) (Appellant) v Secretary of State for Justice (Respondent); In the Matter of an Application by Eamonn MacDermott for Judicial Review (Northern Ireland); In the Matter of an Application by Raymond Pius McCartney for Judicial Review (Northern Ireland) [2011] UKSC 18.
↑ Irish Times report of Supreme Court case. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
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