One of Kerry’s best players is hardly known, much less garlanded

When Brian Ó Beaglaoich won his first and still solitary All Ireland medal three years ago, his was the 50th medal to find home in our club, Cumann Caide na Gaeltachta.

It was fitting that such a landmark medal should be his and that, on the day, he should be wearing the iconic number 5 jersey immortalised by other Gaeltacht wing backs, Páidí and Tomás Ó Sé.

In the period since that All-Ireland win of 2022, Brian has had his ups and downs with injuries but there have been signs throughout 2025 that he has returned to the irresistible form of 2022 when he became the main option from squeezed kickouts for Shane Ryan. Heading into Sunday’s All-Ireland final, Brian has that sense of being in the groove again as a footballer and of having the wind at his back. He has always been a player who had the maturity not to take these things for granted anyway.

During the bloodletting in the aftermath of Kerry’s defeat in Tullamore earlier this summer, their list of absentees was presented as a possible reason for Kerry’s poor showing against Meath. Seánie O’Shea, Barry Dan O’Sullivan, Paudie Clifford, Diarmuid O’Connor and Paul Geaney’s absences were all mentioned in mitigation but it was very surprising for some of us that Brian Ó Beaglaoich was rarely name-checked in these debates. Our chief line-breaker, a constant presence as an outlet on the wing and a dog of war if ever there was one, Ó Beaglaoich has somehow eluded us.

Ruaidhrí Ó Beaglaoich, Caoimhghín Ó Beaglaoich agus Brian Ó Beaglaoich in the dugout together after a game in August 2020. The first time the three brothers played together for the Gaeltacht

Even now that Kerry have reached another final, it is almost as if Ó Beaglaoich has arrived by stealth. In all the conversations about the game and despite him having the season of his life, our fella very rarely gets a mention. It was always thus and it was always so because that’s exactly the way he would want it.

There is a theory abroad in the Gaeltacht that Brian’s family name is part of the reason for his relative obscurity. We’ve often marvelled and sometimes despaired at some of the pronunciations of our own 'little hero’s' (for that is the origin of the Ó Beaglaoich name) surname. Most Irish people can manage the ‘beag’ part but the ‘laoch’ part catches them. The trick is to put the beag part and the laoich part together. Think ‘beag’ and by the banks of my own lovely ‘Laoi’ and you’ve got it.

Those on the other side of Cnoc Bréanainn from us here in the Gaeltacht will say that the football came from the Lynch’s side or Brian’s mother’s side of the family in Caslegregory. A few years before Brian was born, his uncle Seán Lynch won a county minor championship with a West Kerry team for whom his father, Brian’s grandfather, the late Johnny Lynch was selector. Johnny knew football, respected footballers and had a deep love of the game. If you go to any of our home games in Gallaros, Johnny Lynch’s daughter, Brian’s Mom, Elaine will be the first to greet you at the gate selling our club lotto tickets. Living just a few hundred yards from our pitch at Gallaros, Brian and his family have worn a path to the pitch for a long time.

Even though he is following in the footsteps of our two great wing backs, Páidí and Tomás, and despite being related to another iconic Gaeltacht half back, the famed broadcaster, Micheál Ó Sé, those who went to primary school with Brian will tell you that Marc Ó Sé as number 2 was the one Brian looked up to all along. Most of his formative years were spent in the full back line and the younger Ó Sé, then at the peak of his powers, was the exemplar in those final years in Scoil na Muirí. You never forget your first trainer at the club either and another Ó Sé, Joe Bán, is often credited by Brian as giving him those vital early words of encouragement and wisdom.

In 2008, Brian’s final year in primary school, Scoil na Muirí reached the final of the two-teacher schools competition under Cumann na mBunscol. Their opponents were Bonane National School and it was to be the first time he would cross paths with a fourth class pupil, Seánie O Shea. A classic contest ensued and a mutual respect between kindred spirits was moulded that day.

Schoolmates PJ Mac Láimh, Brian Ó Beaglaoich, Ciarán Ó Beaglaoich (Brian's Dad) and Alastair Mac Gearailt taking in a game in Gallarus

As Brian progressed through the underage ranks in the Gaeltacht, coaches such as Seán Mac an tSíthigh and the late lamented, Tomás Ó Conchúir, noticed the freedom presented by a transition from one hop and one solo to full rules. The slaloming solo runs, his stock and trade as a minor full back, were beginning to take shape. Coming under the guidance of Éamonn Fitzmaurice in Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne helped hone his skills and develop an end product for some of those runs. His performances during the two miraculous Hogan Cup winning campaigns of 2014 and 2015 are still spoken about more than a decade later in town and back west.

I was over 20 years older than many of the Gaeltacht’s Pobalscoil players when I got involved in management with Marc Ó Sé, Conall Ó Cruadhlaoich and others in 2017 and, given the age gap, I sought Fitzmaurice’s advice on some of his former charges at Pobalscoil.

— “Cén sórt é Brian Ó Beaglaoich?”, what kinda fella is Brian?

— “Hugely intelligent, has a real edge to him and he’s deep- tá sé doimhin”

— “How do you mean deep?”

— “Bottomless”

The more I have seen of Brian these last eight years, the more I appreciate Fitzmaurice’s take on him.

I have observed him on his own, running at pace with a ball during the off-season in Gallaros in 2020 and 2021 after Kerry’s defeats to Tyrone and to Cork. Brian played wing forward on that strangest of evenings on Leeside. For two winters he did the same run on the stand side, by the sea in Gallaros, over and over and over again, ball in hand, running hard and kicking in full flight from the right hand side with the right leg. He had it down to a fine art by 2022 and nobody does it better in 2025. The left legged point against Armagh (not his first one) is indicative of a player still with the capacity to surprise.

Tomás Ó Sé presenting a young Brian Ó Beaglaoich with one of his first underage medals

The quiet determination or ‘diongbháilteacht’ he showed as a kid is still there. He still doesn’t let you in easy on or off the field and the inscrutability Fitzmaurice spoke of, will always be there. Tá san sa dúchas ann. He is, however, very much a player ‘istigh leis féin’, happy in his own skin and well aware of what he brings to the team.

Even though he would recoil at the attention, posters have been going up all week on the road into Dingle in support of Brian, the other Beaglaoich on the squad, Cathal, and selector Aodán Mac Gearailt. All three attended Scoil na Muirí, a stone’s throw from their homes. All are proud Gaeltacht men this weekend.

After ten years in the green and gold, Brian Ó Beaglaoich (beag Laoi), the kid with the worst possible birthday for an underage player, idir dhá Nollaig and an even worse nickname — Bubba (don’t ask) — still hangs out with his old friends from school.

Facing into his fifth All Ireland final on Sunday, he could well be handed the huge task of tracking and negating Shane O’Donnell. If that is the case, the quiet man from Carraig who always eschewed the spotlight may have to take centre stage.

Back here in the Gaeltacht, we think he’ll be alright.

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