John O'Leary

John O'Leary (born 1961) is a Dublin-born Gaelic footballer who played for the O'Dwyers club and at senior level for the Dublin county team. He is an area manager for Permanent TSB and in 2007 was a candidate for Fianna Fáil in the constituency of Dublin North. O'Leary has a biography of his sporting career with Dublin (co-written with Martin Breheny and published by Blackwater Press in 1997), entitled Back To The Hill. Playing career His inter-county began with Dublin in 1978, where he was a member of the panel that won the 1978 Leinster Minor Football Championship and were beaten in the All-Ireland Minor Football Championship final to Mayo. He had only appeared as a substitute for Dublin in 1978 and he became the first choice goalkeeper for Dublin in 1979. This proved to be a successful year for him, as he went on to claim his second Leinster minor medal and his first all-Ireland minor medal with Dublin. O'Leary made his championship debut for Dublin in 1980 against Offaly in the Leinster championship final. Dublin lost the game at Croke Park by 1–10 to 1–8 with O'Leary his first goal in a Dublin shirt against Offaly with a Matt Connor goal in front of a packed crowd of 50,276. This proved to be Dublins first loss in the Leinster championship since losing to Louth in 1973. This proved a less than satisfactory debut but 1980 also brought success to the O'Dwyer's man. He won his first and only Leinster U21 Football Championship in 1980 only to be defeated in the final to Cork. 1981 proved to be another unsuccessful year for O'Leary with Dublin being knocked out of the Leinster Senior Football Championship to Laois by 2–09 to 0–11 in Tullamore. O'Leary conceded two goals in the game to Tom Prendergast (penalty) and John Costello. In the previous round of the Leinster championship O'Leary made an amazing save from Wicklows Pat O'Byrne which proved the difference between the sides. He received the save of the season award for the save. 1982 proved to be another unsuccessful year in the blue jersey, with Dublin losing out to Offaly in a repeat of the 1980 Leinster final. O'Leary won his first All-Ireland Senior Football Championship with Dublin in 1983. He got to exact his revenge on Offaly in the Leinster final by defeating them by 2–13 to 1–11. Matt O'Connor managed to repeat his goal scoring against O'Leary but it was enough to stop Dublin at Croke Park. Dublin went on to play Cork in the semi-final at Croke Park which finished on 2-11 a-piece.