The Gallagher Bros GAA background, including Noel scoring a point at Croke Park

Irish Daily Mirror

3 days ago

When Liam and Noel Gallagher step out onto the pitch for the much-anticipated Oasis gigs in Croke Park, it won't be the first time one of the two brothers has played at the famous GAA stadium.
Both Liam and Noel Gallagher played GAA when they were younger, growing up in Manchester.
Twitter account RareIrishStuff posted a photo of Noel during his GAA days.
Both Noel and Liam played underage football for Oisin's in Manchester and, in 1983, a 16-year-old Noel travelled to Croke Park for an exhibition game against Kilmacud Crokes.
Noel previously spoke about playing Gaelic football as a teenager.
'There's a picture of me somewhere scoring a point (in Croke Park). I haven't seen the picture for years.
'I was in a Gaelic football team in Manchester and we were a great team too. All the Irish social clubs that were attached to the churches all had Gaelic football teams.'
It is believed he scored the point against Kilmacud during that game in 1983, though he cannot recall which end it was scored into.
Gallagher said that Oisin's were Lancashire champions many times throughout his youth when he was a player.
They won championships at U-12s, U-14s, U-16s and U-18s. Sadly, he was lost to the Lancashire footballers in later years.
'I played soccer as well. And then I gave up both when I discovered marijuana,' said Noel.
Oisin's Kevin McNeill, whose parents were from Louisburgh in Mayo, previously played with the Gallagher brothers.
He previously told the Irish Mirror: 'I played a lot with Noel and Liam and their elder brother Paul. My brother Sean played in that game at Croke Park.
'Noel was a very skilful, tricky footballer, he was a corner-forward and, as I know he wasn't a free-kick taker, his score in that game in Croke Park must have been from open play.
'Paul was a defender but Liam, who would have played in the half-back line, played less than Paul and Noel.
'We were from north Manchester and they were from south Manchester, in Burnage, and they stuck together themselves, but they were good lads. Liam and Noel Gallagher both played Gaelic Football in their youth (Image: Lewis Evans/Big Brother Recordings)
'One thing though, I'd often read about them playing their GAA in Didsbury but Noel and Liam wouldn't likely have played there.
'Back then, Oisin's were based in Hough End, on the main road as you come out from the airport, about 10 minutes away from Burnage where they lived.'
Paddy O'Donoghue of Kilmacud Crokes previously remembered that game in Croker in 1983.
'One of our mentors had family in the Irish community in Manchester and their team were coming over to Dublin," he said.
'We made the U-15 county final but lost to St Anne's, who had Ciarán Walsh.'
It was an encounter destined for little post-match attention and while the world's news agenda would pivot towards the Gallaghers a decade later, McNeill was as surprised as anyone that the Noel he played against was interested in rock and roll.
'I never even knew they were musical at the time,' said McNeill.
'I was a Smiths fan and if I was to say anything about that 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984 period when we were in our teens it was that everybody seemed to me to be in a band — that was the way it was in those times — except them!'
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