Éamonn Fitzmaurice Gaelic games player
Éamonn Fitzmaurice is a former inter-county Gaelic footballer for Kerry, the first Lixnaw man (a predominantly hurling area) to play senior championship for the county. He currently manages the Kerry senior team. A secondary school teacher in Dingle, he is married to Tina. His great-grandfather Maurice Fitzmaurice was part of the Kerry hurling team that won the 1891 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship.At club level, Fitzmaurice won the 2005 All-Ireland Junior Club Football Championship with Finuge and the 2007 Kerry Senior Football Championship with Feale Rangers. He captained Feale Rangers to the championship and was lauded for his leadership in the aftermath of that victory. He was awarded the man of the match award for his display against four in a row chasing South Kerry. Fitzmaurice has the unique achievement of winning a Cork County Championship and Munster Club Championship with UCC in 1999. He has played in 11 County championship finals between football and hurling and Kerry and Cork. He won County Senior Hurling Championships with Lixnaw in 1999, 2005 and 2007.Fitzmaurice played 50 championship games for Kerry and won the 2000, 2004 and 2006 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, having made his championship debut against Cork in 1998. The majority of his Kerry games were at centre half back where he played every game from 2000 to 2005 at number 6. He won a minor and 2 Under 21 All-Ireland medals and 6 Munster Championship medals. He retired from inter-county football early in 2007 at the young age of 29.On retiring he wrote columns for the Irish Examiner. He was named as a selector by incoming manager Jack O'Connor after the 2008 season. Kerry won the All-Ireland in 2009 under the management of O'Connor, with Fitzmaurice as a selector. O'Connor went on record as saying that Fitzmaurice would be a future Kerry manager. He left after Kerry were surprisingly beaten by Down in the 2010 All-Ireland quarter-final. He became the new Kerry U-21 manager in May 2011. He succeeded Jack O'Connor as manager of the Kerry senior team on a three-year contract in August 2012. He guided Kerry to a Munster title and an All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Dublin.On 21 September 2014, Fitzmaurice managed Kerry to win their 37th All-Ireland title after a 2-9 to 0-12 win against Donegal.