From Crossmolina to London, Boston and Wexford: Sean Kelly’s road less travelled
There have been plenty of twists and turns in Sean Kelly’s GAA career, but few could have predicted that his footballing journey would take him from Crossmolina to Boston, from London to Wexford — and, in between, see him line out against his native Mayo in an inter-county championship game.
Kelly’s journey began at home, playing his football with Crossmolina, before the pull of life abroad took him across the Atlantic to Boston.
It was there, with Christopher’s, that he enjoyed one of the highlights of his playing career.
“We won a Boston Championship in 2009 with Christopher’s out in Boston,” Kelly recalls. “And we won the All-American that year as well.”
That success was followed by another summer in Boston, giving Kelly two seasons playing Gaelic football in the United States.
But it was across the water in London where perhaps the most unusual chapter of his career unfolded.
In 2011, Kelly found himself lining out for London against Mayo — his home county — in what was James Horan’s first season in charge of the Mayo senior footballers.
There was an intriguing backstory to that encounter.
Just months earlier, Kelly had actually been given the opportunity to try and impress the new Mayo manager.
“I actually did a trial for James Horan, I'd say in the November of 2010,” he says.
The circumstances were unusual enough in themselves.
“I flew home from London for a trial. I don't really know why, but anyway, fun fact I suppose.”
The trial did not lead to a place in the Mayo set-up, but it made the events of 2011 all the more remarkable. Having considered pulling on the green and red, Kelly instead found himself wearing the London colours and facing Mayo.
It is one of those quirks of a footballer’s career that perhaps only Gaelic games can produce — a Mayo man on the opposite side, playing competitively against the county he had grown up supporting.
The years since have seen Kelly’s footballing journey continue to take unexpected directions.
At one point, he returned home and pulled on the Crossmolina jersey again, playing intermediate football during one of the Covid-affected seasons.
“I actually transferred home and played for Crossmolina one year,” he says. “I think it was one of the Covid years.”
It was another chapter in a career that has refused to follow a conventional path.
Today, Kelly is based in Wexford, where he plays his club football with St Anne’s Rathangan.
The black and blue of St Anne’s now represents the latest stop on a journey that has already taken him through some very different footballing environments.
And there is perhaps no better illustration of the life football can give a player than the photograph of Kelly in the St Anne’s colours, flanked by his two sons, Jack and Ben.
From Crossmolina, to Boston, to London and now Rathangan, the jerseys may have changed but the love of Gaelic football has remained constant.
Along the way there was a Boston Championship, an All-American title, a London shirt worn against Mayo, a trial with his native county and a return home to Crossmolina.
For Sean Kelly, it has been a career measured not simply in medals or appearances, but in the places football has taken him — and the memories created along the way.
Next Saturday Kelly will play for St Anne’s against the Starlights hoping to continue his football career and send his adopted side into a county quarter final.
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