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| Personal information | |||||||||
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| Irish name | Seán Ó Baíolláin | ||||||||
| Sport | Gaelic football | ||||||||
| Born | (1949-12-12) 12 December 1949 (age 74)[1] Dunboyne, County Meath, Ireland | ||||||||
| Club management | |||||||||
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| Inter-county management | |||||||||
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| Inter-county titles | |||||||||
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Seán Boylan (born 12 December 1949) is an Irish former Gaelic football manager from Dunboyne, County Meath. He retired from his position as manager of the senior Meath county team on the evening of 31 August 2005 after twenty-three years in charge. This was an inter-county managerial record with one team that was only surpassed in Gaelic gamesbyBrian Cody in 2022, his 24th and last season as manager of the Kilkenny senior hurling team.[2][3]
During his time with Meath, he managed the team to: the Centenary Cup; eight Leinster Senior Football Championship titles; four All-Ireland Senior Football Championship titles (1987, 1988, 1996, 1999); three National Football League titles.
He also managed the Meath county hurling team, whom he also played with for 21 years. He managed Ireland in the 2006 and 2008 International Rules Series.
On 6 August 2020, a documentary called Seán, directed by Alan Bradley, aired on RTÉ about Boylan's life on and off the pitch.[4]
In recognition of his services to Meath GAA and his services to Meath as a county, Boylan was conferred as Freeman of the County of Meath – the first (and only) person ever to be bestowed with the title – on 23 April 2006. He was entered into the GAA Hall of Fame for his services to Meath football at a ceremony after Meath's Leinster Minor Football Championship victory over Offaly in Croke Park on 16 July 2006.
In August 2006, he was once again nominated for the role of Meath senior hurling team manager, the position he originally expected to have been nominated for when he ended up as Meath's inter-county football manager.[5]
He has also been involved with UCD in the Sigerson Cup and was announced as part of Conor Laverty's Down under-20 backroom team in December 2020.[6]
In 2011, he was ratified as Meath's Director of Football, representing the Meath Co Committee in the sport's development at all levels and having a role in appointing all managers of county teams.[7]
After Colm O'Rourke was appointed as Meath senior manager in 2022, he wrote that Boylan "will have open access to the team as adviser, counsellor, motivator or whatever else he wants to be".[8]
All-Ireland Senior Football Championship record as Meath manager.
| Year | Played | Won | Draw | Lost | Honours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| 1984 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | |
| 1985 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 1986 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Leinster Champions |
| 1987 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | Leinster and All-Ireland Champions |
| 1988 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | Leinster and All-Ireland Champions |
| 1989 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | Leinster Champions and All-Ireland Runner up |
| 1991 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 1 | Leinster Champions and All-Ireland Runner up |
| 1992 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | Leinster and All-Ireland Champions |
| 1997 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | Leinster and All-Ireland Champions |
| 2000 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | Leinster Champions and All-Ireland Runner up |
| 2002 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | |
| 2003 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | |
| Total | 95 | 61 | 11 | 23 | |
| Percentages | 64% | 12% | 24% | ||
Boylan coached the Ireland team against Australia in the 2006 International Rules Series in two games in Pearse Stadium, Salthill, Galway and Croke Park, Dublin in October 2006. Australia won the series by 30 points but the game was overshadowed by violent incidents in the first quarter of the second test match, including a serious injury sustained by Graham Geraghty. He also admitted that he brought his players off at the end of the first quarter in protest and did not want them to return, later saying: "I said I'd do it. Only the players themselves changed my mind. They said they wanted to go out and give it a go, they wanted to play football."
Boylan coached the international side again in the 2008 International Rules Series. Ireland won on an aggregate score of 102–97.
Boylan's late father, also called Seán, was a leader of the Irish independence movement in the early twentieth century, being a prominent member of the IRA in County Meath during the Irish War of Independence.
Like another Meath football icon, Colm O'Rourke, Boylan has strong County Leitrim connections as his late mother hailed from near the small village of Cloone near Mohill.
Boylan is a traditional medical herbalist, practicing out of his home at Edenmore, Dunboyne.[9]
He had prostate cancer in 2009. In January 2021, he gave an interview to RTÉ Radio, during which he said he had tested positive for COVID-19 the previous March, lost ten kilograms in six days, and was in Connolly HospitalinBlanchardstown until the 31st of the same month.[10] Less than three months later, Boylan said he was "shocked" after photographs circulated of Dublin secretly training during Level 5 restrictions, breaching both GAA rules and Government regulations.[11]
Boylan, who managed his native Royal county to four All-Ireland titles in a remarkable 23-year tenure, told RTÉ's Sunday Sport how he was 'just terrified' as the virus hit him 'like a bolt' last March. 'It's such a dangerous thing', the 77-year-old said. 'I'm speaking as somebody who went for a vaccination for pneumonia and the flu. Some six days later, I wasn't feeling well. It turned out that I had Covid'... Boylan, who turned 77 in December and previously fought a battle with prostate cancer in 2009..."'The terror, the fear, was unreal. I lost ten kilos in six days' - Sean Boylan opens up on Covid battle". Irish Independent. 18 January 2021. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
Speaking to Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio One, Boylan revealed that although he has now made a full recovery, it was a long and scary process. 'I ended up in hospital and was discharged from hospital on March 31st', he said."Seán Boylan: There are positive signs in Meath football". RTÉ Sport. 17 January 2021. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
A routine trip for a flu vaccination ended with Boylan eventually being taken to hospital. He would go on to test positive for Covid-19, and he says it took him six weeks to get back to feeling normal... 'I was never healthier, fit as a fiddle. I lost 10 kilos in six days. the[sic] people in Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown couldn't have been nicer to me'.
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| Preceded by | Meath Senior Football Manager 1982–2005 |
Succeeded by |
Ireland squads
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