Colm O'Rourke

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Personal information
Colm O'Rourke
Sport	Gaelic football
Place of birth	Aughavas, County Leitrim , Ireland
Occupation	Teacher, pundit
Club information
Club	Skryne
Position	Centre Forward
Inter-County
County	Meath
Position	Corner Forward
Inter-County(ies)**
County	Years	Apps (scores)
Meath	1975-1995
Senior Inter-County Titles
Leinster Titles	5
All-Ireland	2
All Stars	3
* club appearances and scores correct as of {{{clupdate}}}. **Inter County team apps and scores correct as of {{{icupdate}}}.

Colm O'Rourke (Irish: Colm Ó Ruairc) is a retired inter-county Irish Gaelic footballer for County Meath in Ireland and a panellist on RTÉ's The Sunday Game. Despite becoming famous for playing for Meath, O'Rourke is not a Meathman by birth, he was born in the small parish of Aughavas within County Leitrim.^[1] He moved with his family as a youngster from Leitrim to Meath due to the Land Commission granting land to westerners in Meath and Kildare. O'Rourke is a descendant of the great Uí Ruairc royal house of Breffni. He has, however, been accepted by the people of Skryne in Meath as one of their own forty years after arriving from Aughavas. He is a secondary school teacher in St. Patrick's Classical School in Navan where he has trained the Gaelic football to numerous successes at provincial and national level throughout the past two decades^{[citation needed]}. He has also managed his own sports shop in Navan Shopping Centre, Colm O'Rourke Sports, during this period. He started working on The Sunday Game with RTÉ in 1991, and has simultaneously been a regular contributor of sports columns in national newspapers. He is continuously being linked with the Meath GAA manager's job, previously held by another man with strong Leitrim connections, Sean Boylan. O'Rourke son Shane O'Rourke is a current senior footballer with Meath.

[edit] Playing career

O'Rourke is now retired from his footballing career. He won two All-Ireland medals with Meath, in 1987 and 1988. He also won five Leinster Championship medals and three National Football League wins. He managed the Irish team for the Compromise Rules competition for two successful outings. O'Rourke received three All-Star for Meath in 1983, 1988 and 1991. His performance, playing with a bandaged knee, in the legendary Dublin-Meath matches of the summer of 1991 are still recounted in Meath and drew admiration from GAA fans throughout Ireland.^{[citation needed]} When playing for Meath he was part of a Full Forward line of himself, Brian Stafford & Bernard Flynn, widely regarded as one of the best Full forward lines of all time. It should also be noted that O'Rourke in the past few years has managed Simonstown Gaels GFC in Navan guiding them to two Meath Senior Football Finals in 2003 and 2004 losing on both occasions. However he did guide the club to its first adult title in 2005 winning the Meath Football League Division 1.