The Bradley’s of Glenullin

Few families in Derry football carry a legacy as enduring as the Bradleys. Born in Glenullin and raised just eight miles away in Kilrea, brothers Paddy and Eoin grew into two of the most recognisable Gaelic footballers of their generation, their journeys shaped long before they ever pulled on a county jersey.

Paddy, the elder by three years, became the heartbeat of the Derry team from 1999 until his retirement in 2012. Across those seasons he amassed 216 championship points, collected two National Leagues, and earned an All-Star, firmly establishing himself as the Foylesiders’ talisman. Eoin followed in 2004, joining his brother and their cousin Gerard O’Kane to form a lethal attacking trio that defined an era for the county.

John Mitchel’s Glenullin are like so many GAA clubs scattered across the country, a place where the football pitch doubles as the beating heart of the community, kept alive by family, memory, and tradition.

But in this small pocket of south Derry, that heartbeat seems to echo a little louder. Here, the ties between generations run deep, woven through every county championship win and every team huddle for nearly seventy years. Football isn’t just a sport in Glenullin; it’s a thread that binds past to present, carried from one generation to the next with quiet pride.

The Bradley boys never had to look far for inspiration. Their father, Liam, was an underage star for the Oak Leaf county but saw his own intercounty career cut short by a devastating cruciate injury, an almost impossible setback at the time.

Soldiered

Despite a noticeable limp, he soldiered on with Glenullin and helped the club to its second county title in 1985, lining out alongside five of the Bradley brothers. Liam’s brother, and Paddy and Eoin’s uncle, Gabriel, had been part of the famed Derry side that claimed back-to-back Ulster titles in 1976 and ’77.

Between 1975 and 1984 he made twenty-two appearances for the county. But the Bradley tradition didn’t begin there. Two of Gabriel and Liam’s uncles, James and Paddy Rafferty, had also lined out for Derry, while Gabriel played alongside his first cousin Eunan Rafferty, Paddy Rafferty’s son, during the 1980s.

Whenever you’d be going across the road in the car with Daddy, all you’d be talking about was football, games that he played, matches that Glenullin were successful in”

Their cousin Colm Rafferty would go on to win the All-Ireland with Derry in 1993, and Liam himself later managed Antrim during the 2000s. By the time Glenullin captured their third ever county title in 2007, the Bradley family’s fingerprints were all over it, with more than half the team connected by blood.

For youngsters Paddy and Eoin, it always felt inevitable that they would follow the path laid out before them. Born in Glenullin but raised in a mixed housing estate up the road in Kilrea, their evenings followed a familiar pattern: piling into the car with their father, Liam, and heading down to the GAA pitch. That almost nightly routine shaped their minds early, leaving little doubt about what their futures would hold.

“Whenever you’d be going across the road in the car with Daddy, all you’d be talking about was football, games that he played, matches that Glenullin were successful in, and cups and championships they won. It just sort of gets ingrained in your head that that’s all you want to do. Glenullin was always where my heart lay.”

“We were getting Gaelic every night of the week because we were over in Glenullin training, or we’d be down with Daddy. We’d have been coming across every night with him, chatting about playing and winning championships, so the seed was sown very early; trying to be successful and playing with Glenullin was all we ever wanted.”

“In 1985 we won a senior club championship, and there were seven Bradleys starting that day,” he recalls. “My uncle Gabriel would be well known also; he captained Derry. Daddy’s career was cut short by a knee injury. Dominic would have been a very prominent player as well, but he moved to America and spent most of his teenage and adult life there.

“The tradition of Bradleys playing with the club has always been really strong. There’s just been a really strong line of Bradleys playing around here.”

The congruency in the Bradley family tree is nothing short of remarkable. Even in their off time, Paddy and Eoin mirrored one another, both on and off the Gaelic football pitch.

Soccer

Growing up at the peak of the Troubles, the boys often spent their days kicking a soccer ball, while their evenings were dominated by Gaelic football. At the front of their estate, they turned a meadow into a makeshift arena, playing alongside other children from both Catholic and Protestant backgrounds, a rare space of normalcy in a turbulent time.

There were a few people murdered, and there was a bomb in the police station. The Troubles were ongoing, but we were fairly well shielded from it”

Paddy recalls those early years vividly, where despite the unrest unfolding around them, the estate offered a sense of peace and community.

“I was born in ’81 in Glenullin, though I spent most of my young life in Kilrea,” he says. “It was smack bang in the middle of the Troubles. There were a few people murdered, and there was a bomb in the police station. The Troubles were ongoing, but we were fairly well shielded from it.”

“We lived in a small housing estate, and there was a share of Protestant lads that lived there too,” he explains. “We often played a lot of soccer because it was a mixed estate. There was a big meadow out the front, and we were always playing out there.”

“We were getting Gaelic every night over in Glenullin, and that’s what we loved more than anything. It was a really enjoyable childhood. The summers were great, but Gaelic football was always number one,” Paddy says.

As they grew into powerful men, the brothers’ skill and athleticism extended far beyond the Gaelic football pitch. During the off-season, both would play in the Irish League, Paddy with stints for Cliftonville and Dungannon, and Eoin for Coleraine and Glenavon. Eoin had considerable success, winning two Irish Cups.

“I never really took it that seriously,” Paddy admits. “It was more to keep in shape. Once the Gaelic season started ramping up, I’d drop soccer. But even back then, whenever push came to shove, it was always Gaelic football for me and Eoin.”

If he had focused on it earlier, he’d have been more than good enough to go across the water and play in England”

“Back in the day, from September to January, you had a period of time to play between the end of the championship and the start of the national league. I spent 3 or 4 months playing soccer. Once the Gaelic started ramping up, I’d drop the soccer straightaway. It was more so just to keep in shape.”

“Eoin was an exceptional soccer player, and he only really went down that road towards the end of his Gaelic career. If he had focused on it earlier, he’d have been more than good enough to go across the water and play in England,” Paddy says.

Even their setbacks seemed to come in pairs. The brothers ruptured their cruciate ligaments in the same season, another strange twist in a lifetime of parallel paths. When they were fit, their connection on the field, along with their cousin Gerard, bordered on instinctive. Their movement, passing, and timing often felt like a kind of family telepathy, a trait that became a hallmark of Glenullin’s attack.

Intercounty honours often eluded the Bradleys despite their status as household names, with a single National League medal the only piece of silverware they shared at that level. But at club level, their legacy is carved far more deeply. Glenullin’s famous 2007 team, captained by Paddy, remains a touchstone in local lore, the Bradleys at the heart of a side that delivered the parish’s third and most recent county title.

That autumn, Glenullin bridged a 22-year gap to lift the Johnny McLaughlin Cup, edging a fancied Bellaghy outfit in a nail-biting 0-10 to 1-6 victory. Gerard O’Kane produced a man-of-the-match performance in midfield, but it was Paddy, fresh off receiving his All-Star only two days earlier, who kicked the decisive score, sealing a day still spoken of with pride in the village.

Immense

The brothers were immense, contributing a combined 0-7 of Glenullin’s tally, in a team where more than half the players were tied to the Bradley family tree. It was a true family affair and a vivid reminder of just how deep the Bradley football dynasty runs within the parish.

“The highlight will always be winning that championship with the club,” he says. “It was years and years of hard work. From Daddy putting that seed in your head about winning the senior championship. Everything just clicked at the right time in 2007. We’d been knocking on the door for a few years, so to finally get over the line was a dream come true.”

“Daddy was manager of the team, I was captain, Eoin was playing, and all the cousins were there too. We were such a close-knit group. From around 2005 to 2009, we trained like demons, but all the hard work was worth it.”

My own two sons are on the under-16 panel at the moment that I’m managing. I push them, but not too much, because they have to find their own steps”

It’s rare to find a place where generations overlap as naturally and powerfully as they do in John Mitchel’s GAA of Glenullin. Now, eighteen years on from their last county title, it seems another golden crop is beginning to rise, shaped by the memory of that famous day in 2007. For many of the youngsters now pulling on the club colours, that victory is their origin story, the spark that lit their love of the game.

With four sons of his own, Paddy Bradley is hopeful that the family torch is ready to be passed on once more.

“We’re a small club, but we’re a generational club,” he says. “We won a championship in 1985, and then I captained a championship win in 2007, and a lot of the lads on my team’s fathers would have played in ’85. Now what you’re starting to see is a lot of the kids of the 2007 team starting to come through.”

“It’s about them leading on from the people that went before you,” he explains. “My own two sons are on the under-16 panel at the moment that I’m managing. I push them, but not too much, because they have to find their own steps. But I do hope they follow in my footsteps, and their grandad’s and their uncles’, and play for Glenullin, and for Derry, if they can.”

“For us at the club it’s all about winning that next championship,” Paddy says. “We’re not a million miles away from it, and that’s what it’s all about. Hopefully I’ll have a few sons kicking about when it happens, and maybe they’ll be part of it.”