Paul Brady (handballer)
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Irish name | Pól Ó Brádaigh | ||
| Sport | Handball, Gaelic football | ||
| Position | Half-back | ||
| Born | Cavan, Ireland | ||
| Occupation | Teacher | ||
| Inter-county(ies) | |||
| Years | County | ||
| 2005-present | Cavan | ||
Paul Brady (born 20 September 1979) is an Irish handball and Gaelic football player. Born in Cavan, he won his fifth Men's Singles title in a row at the 2015 at Calgary, Canada. He defeated Killian Carroll from Cork in the final as the Irish dominated the singles with the four semi final berths taken by Irish players. His rivalry with Luis Moreno has been likened to the Federer–Nadal rivalry in tennis. Brady will likely attempt to achieve the record of 12 US National singles titles, which will take him to 2018 and just weeks short of his 39th birthday. Brady has stated he won't compete for his 6th World Handball Championship in 2018.
Brady was introduced to the sport as a 12-year-old by Fr John Gilhooly, a teacher in St Patrick's College, Cavan. While he showed an early aptitude and won an All Ireland Feile title in 1993, Brady didn't win his first "full" All Ireland title until the age of 16, partnering Pauric Kiernan to the U16 doubles crown in 1995. In 1997, he defeated Meath's Carl Browne in an all-Irish 17 and Under final at the World Championships in Winnipeg, Canada. The win was a mild shock at the time, and marked Brady out as an outstanding prospect. The following year, Brady landed the prestigious Minor Singles title, defeating Dublin's Eoin Kennedy for the first time in a marathon final in Roscommon.
Having won the minor title, Brady began to travel regularly to the US for tournaments. In June 1998, he won the US Nationals 19 and Under Singles in Los Angeles, won the Junior Nationals in the same age group the following December in Chicago, Illinois and won the title again the next June, this time in Baltimore, Maryland.
At home, he advanced to intermediate ranks and won the All Ireland title at the first time of asking, defeating Eoin Kennedy in the semi-final and Kerry's Dominick Lynch in the final in Ballaghedereen, Co Roscommon. The following February, Brady again defeated Brad Alesi, this time in the final of the USHA Collegiates in Minneapolis, a tournament which draws the best college handballers in Ireland and North America and has come to be seen as a stepping stone to the professional ranks. That autumn, Brady made it to the last four of the World Championship Open Singles in Chicago, losing a heartbreaking 11-8 tiebreaker to top American John Bike.
The stage seemed set for a major impact at senior level back at home but it took the Cavanman some time to adjust. A crop of dominant senior players, including Ducksy Walsh, Walter O'Connor and Tom Sheridan were coming to the end of their senior 40x20 careers at this time and with the emergence of young stars such as Brady, Kennedy, Carlow's Kenneth Kane and, most of all, Cork's Tony Healy, the senior scene was extremely competitive at this time. Brady would suffer a number of heartbreaking defeats – games which he has often cited as being crucial to his later success – before he finally made a senior breakthrough. He lost the All Ireland senior final, in a tiebreaker to Healy, the Irish Nationals final, the senior doubles final and the singles and doubles trials for the World Championships in 2000 and 2001.
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