Sean Ferriter

Last updated

Sean Ferriter
Personal information
Sport Gaelic football
Born (1938-09-15) 15 September 1938 (age 84)
Occupation Garda [1]
Solicitor [1]
Club(s)
YearsClub
19??–?
 St Eunan's
Club titles
Donegal titles 3
Inter-county(ies)
YearsCounty
1957–19??
 Donegal

Sean Ferriter (born 15 September 1938) [2] is an Irish former Gaelic footballer who played for St Eunan's and the Donegal county team. [3] His position was in midfield (though he did play as a goalkeeper for his school). [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Born in Milford, County Donegal, his parents were Garda Morgan (from West Kerry) and Tess (from Baltray in County Louth). [2] He was one of six children: four sons and two daughters. [2] He attended Dunfanaghy National School for his primary education. [2] For his secondary education, Ferriter attended St Eunan's College as a boarder, playing for the school team (as a goalkeeper) and being greatly influenced by John Wilson, the Gaelic footballer and future Tánaiste who was teaching there at that time. [2] [4]

Playing career

Ferriter played for the Donegal team that won the 1956 Ulster Minor Football Championship. [2] He made his senior debut for Donegal in 1957 against Tyrone at the age of 18. [2]

He captained the Donegal team that overcame Cavan in the 1963 Ulster Senior Football Championship semi-final, thus earning his team a place in the final for the first time. [2]

He played for Donegal in the 1964–65 National Football League semi-final against Kerry. [5]

He won three Donegal Senior Football Championships with his club St Eunan's. [2] He also played for Ulster in the Railway Cup, [6] with whom he won two titles. [2]

Retirement

A former Garda, Ferriter served for a time in Dublin. [1] His experience of Dublin proved invaluable to Brian McEniff when Donegal qualified for the 1992 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final — against Dublin. [2]

Ferriter later studied law and qualified as a solicitor, practising in the Dublin suburb of Blanchardstown. [1]

He met his wife Mary, originally from Thurles, while she was working as a civil servant in Dublin (where Ferriter was at the time based as a Garda); she predeceased him. [2] He has eight children. [2] One of his sons, Paul, is a sculptor. [1]

Accolades

In 2001, the Donegal Democrat included Ferriter in a Millennium Team. [2]

In May 2012, the Irish Independent named him in its selection of Donegal's "greatest team" spanning the previous 50 years. [7]

In 2020, he was announced as the 44th inductee into the Donegal Sports Star Awards Hall of Fame Award. [2]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Gilleece, Dermot (18 January 2009). "A portrait of the artist: Irish sculptor Paul Ferriter is carving a niche for himself in the world of golf". Sunday Independent . Independent News & Media . Retrieved 18 January 2009. In an earlier life, I reported on Sean Ferriter playing Gaelic football for Donegal. His son's early sporting memories, however, were all about golf... Born in Letterkenny in December 1967, Paul Ferriter moved as a boy to Dublin where his father was transferred as a member of An Garda Siochana. Now the father is a solicitor in Blanchardstown, having gone back to college to study law.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 "Hall of Fame Honour for Sean Ferriter". Highland Radio . 14 January 2020. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  3. ↑ "Outstanding Long Serving County Stars". Naomh Adhamhnáin. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015.
  4. ↑ "College Gaelic Team 1956 - 1957". 30 May 2019. Archived from the original on 22 September 2019. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  5. ↑ "Back in time...". Clár Oifigiúil: Quarter-Final Group Stage, Group 2 Phase 2 (i.e. the Kerry match). 21 July 2019. p. 35.
  6. ↑ McNulty, Chris (25 November 2016). "Sean Ferriter pays tribute to the late Joe Lennon, 'a formidable opponent'" . Retrieved 25 November 2016.
  7. ↑ "GAA: Donegal's greatest team of the past 50 years named". Donegal Daily. 14 May 2012. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
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