Naoise Ó Baoill
Personal information
Sport Gaelic football
Position Centre half forward
Born 1997 (age 26–27)[1]
Letterkenny, County Donegal[2]
Height 5 ft 5[3] in (1.65 m)
Club(s)
Years Club
?–
 Gaoth Dobhair
Club titles
Donegal titles 1
Ulster titles 1
Inter-county(ies)
Years County
2017
 Donegal

Naoise Ó Baoill (born 1997)[2][3][4] is an Irish-Japanese Gaelic footballer, reared in Japan and Australia and currently playing for Gaoth Dobhair. He formerly played for the Donegal county team. He has also played Australian rules football and association football in the past.

Early life

Born in Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ó Baoill's mother, Kumi, is Japanese and he spent much of his early childhood in her home country.[2][4] He has two siblings, both of whom were born in Tokyo.[4] His father Colm, an Irishman originally from Bóthar na Trá in Machaire Chlochair,[4] got a job in Australia and the family moved there in 1998.[2][4]

Ó Baoill preferred playing association football while living there and admired the Liverpool and England player Steven Gerrard;[4][5] however, he showed some interest in playing Australian rules football as well.[4] The family moved from Sydney to Gaoth Dobhair in 2009 when Ó Baoill was twelve.[2][4] His father is close to the father of Odhrán Mac Niallais and Ó Baoill was thus often at Mac Niallais's house from a young age.[2] He is also a cousin of Gaoth Dobhair and Donegal player Daire Ó Baoill.[2][4] Though involved in playing association football for Letterkenny Rovers,[4] Ó Baoill was drawn towards Gaelic football when he played his first game against Termon at under-14 level on the grounds of a Letterkenny school.[4] He later recalled:

I didn't know what was going on… it took me a while. It was hard to adapt. The weather was the main difference.[4]

Tom "Beag" Gillespie was manager of the Gaoth Dobhair under-14 team at the team Ó Baoill began playing.[4] Ó Baoill was part of a side that went undefeated from the under-16 until the under-21 levels.[2] When he won a Donegal Minor Football Championship medal with Gaoth Dobhair in 2014, Ó Baoill brought it with him to the island of Kyushu to show it to his grandparents.[4] Ó Baoill has attended Maynooth University,[5][3] where he has studied Biomedical Science.[3] He works in Teach Mhicí, a pub owned by the family of Gaoth Dobhair teammate Kevin Cassidy.[6]

Playing career

Ó Baoill played for the Donegal senior team in 2017.[7]

He typically plays as Gaoth Dobhair's number 11 (with photographs existing of him in that number jersey from a young age) and his diminutive stature allows him to "get down under an O'Neill's size five" and race towards the opposite side of the field of play.[2][4] He has stated that his ambition is to "prove that people under the standard height can play at the highest level".[5]

Ó Baoill won a Donegal Senior Football Championship medal with Gaoth Dobhair in 2018, starting for his team in the final and completing the game.[8] It gave him a full set of county championship medals at the age of just 21.[9]

Ó Baoill then played during Gaoth Dobhair's first ever Ulster Senior Club Football Championship-winning campaign, a run which involved a quarter final defeat of Cargin (with Ó Baoill starting the game and being substituted in injury time),[10] a semi-final defeat of eleven-time winners Crossmaglen Rangers (with Ó Baoill starting and completing the game),[11] and culminated in the club defeating Scotstown (who had won the competition on four previous occasions), the last two of these games occurring at Healy Park in Omagh. Ó Baoill also started for Gaoth Dobhair in the Ulster final, scoring a point, vital as the sides were only separated by one point in the end, following extra time.[12] Eamon McGee had queried before that game whether Ó Baoill would become the first Japanese man to play in the final of the Ulster Club Football Championship.[13]

Personal life

Ó Baoill moved to Canada in 2021.[14] He originally intended to visit the city of Vancouver in British Columbia during a summer break from his studies.[14] Then the COVID-19 pandemic happened, causing his trip to be delayed.[14] While in Canada he plays Gaelic for St Finnian's.[14]

Honours

References

  1. ↑ The attached sources state: "Naoise Ó Baoill came over to Gaoth Dobhair when he was 12… Having spent the first 12 years of his life between Japan and Australia, the gloomy Gaoth Dobhair clouds were just another harsh greeting…" and "In 2009, the family moved from Sydney — where they'd been based since 1998 — back to Gaoth Dobhair" and "A third year Biomedical Science student in Maynooth, Ó Baoill (21) was a bundle of energy throughout the final win over Naomh Conaill"; therefore the sources indicate he turned 21 in 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 McIntyre, Niall (2018). "The story of Gaoth Dobhair's centre forward: Born in Letterkenny, raised in Japan and Australia". JOE.ie. Archived from the original on 5 December 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Walsh, Harry (22 October 2018). "Ó Baoill is Gaoth Dobhair's pocket rocket". Donegal News. Archived from the original on 22 October 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 McNulty, Chris (3 December 2018). "'Just get the ball and run' — Naoise Ó Baoill and the journey from there to here". Archived from the original on 6 December 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 "Five minutes with… Naoise Ó Baoill". Donegal News. 24 May 2018. Archived from the original on 24 May 2018.
  6. ↑ O'Brien, Kevin (29 November 2018). "Working in Kevin Cassidy's bar, playing League of Ireland and his hat-trick against Crossmaglen: 21-year-old Gweedore midfielder Daire Ó Baoill is hoping to lift an Ulster club title on Sunday". The42.ie. Archived from the original on 29 November 2018. Like I said, [all the aul men in there would be] my number one critics, they'd always tell you what you did wrong before what you did right — they wouldn't give me that sensation. Same with (… team-mates) Kevin, Niall Friel, Naoise (Ó Baoill) and Dan (McBride). Sometimes we just need a break and we'd spend more time out in the pizzeria and the lounge rather than heading back out to the old folks in the bar.
  7. ↑ Foley, Alan (16 January 2017). "Donegal v Cavan: Five talking points from Ballybofey". Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  8. 1 2 Campbell, Peter (21 October 2018). "Gaoth Dobhair end 12 years of pain with dominant display". RTÉ Sport. Archived from the original on 6 November 2018.
  9. ↑ Campbell, Peter (21 October 2018). "Listen: Gaoth Dobhair human dynamo Naoise Ó Baoill's reaction to Co. final win". Donegal Democrat. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
  10. ↑ Tierney, Paddy (4 November 2018). "Gaoth Dobhair survive fightback to make Ulster SFC last four". RTÉ Sport. Archived from the original on 5 November 2018.
  11. ↑ Mooney, Francis (18 November 2018). "Gaoth Dobhair on the goal trail to book maiden Ulster final spot". RTÉ Sport. Archived from the original on 20 November 2018.
  12. 1 2 Mooney, Francis (2 December 2018). "Gaoth Dobhair edge out Scotstown in extra-time to win historic Ulster title". RTÉ Sport. Archived from the original on 3 December 2018.
  13. ↑ McIntyre, Niall. "Odhran Mac Niallais sums up what club is all about in one powerful post-match interview". JOE.ie. Archived from the original on 4 December 2018.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Ferry, Ryan (19 October 2023). "Naoise set to tune in from Vancouver". Donegal News. p. 66. 'I just wanted to try something new and live in a city with a lot better weather. I was only supposed to come out here for a summer during college but Covid happened so then plans got delayed'.
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