He once outscored Wayne Rooney at the Aviva. Now he’s hoping to outfox TJ Reid in the Kilkenny SHC final

The former League of Ireland stalwart is managing Tullaroan as they look to win the Kilkenny SHC final

Fri Oct 23 2026 - 06:00 • 5 MIN READ

Dave Mulcahy once outscored Wayne Rooney at the Aviva Stadium and on Sunday he will be hoping to outfox TJ Reid at Nowlan Park.

In a county where hurling is the established church of the masses, one of the most capped players in the history of the League of Ireland has managed Tullaroan to the 2026 Kilkenny SHC final against reigning champions Ballyhale Shamrocks.

Mulcahy, who made 373 appearances in the Premier Division, was appointed Tullaroan manager at the start of the year and has guided the club to a first senior county final appearance since 1994.

“He came out to meet us and after about three minutes it was his job. His level of preparedness, his research and the detail he brought was just incredible,” recalls Tullaroan chairman Peter Holland.

Tullaroan are one of the most decorated clubs in Kilkenny, sitting second in the roll of honour with 20 senior titles behind Ballyhale on 21. But their golden period is from another era – Tullaroan’s last triumph was 1994, before that it was 1958.

From the outside, appointing Mulcahy might have seemed like a questionable roll of the dice.

“We were so blown away by him at the interview we didn’t think it was a risk at all,” adds Holland. “Then when we announced it, the slagging started and you’d be hearing that we were going to be playing with a 4-4-2 or a 4-3-3 this year.”

Nobody is slagging Tullaroan now.

And while Mulcahy spent his playing days carving out a long and notable soccer career, he is of hurling stock. Both his grandfathers – Jack Mulcahy and Paddy Grace – won All-Ireland senior hurling titles with Kilkenny. And he is related to the famed Walsh family of Tullaroan – counting Tommy Walsh as a cousin.

A member of the James Stephens club in Kilkenny city, he has coached underage teams in the Village in recent years. And an electrician by trade, with his company David Mulcahy Electrical he has put in a significant effort helping the club with upgrade works in their facilities.

Mulcahy played football until his early 40s, putting down a career that spanned eight League of Ireland clubs – starting off with the now defunct Kilkenny City in 2000 before stints with Waterford United, St Pats, Cork City, Bray Wanderers, Bohemians, Drogheda United and Shelbourne (2018).

He also made history in the summer of 2010 during the first football game at the redeveloped Lansdowne Road when a League of Ireland selection played Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United.

Played in front of almost 50,000, Mulcahy’s 78th-minute goal ensured he will forever remain the answer of a table-quiz question on who was the first player from the Republic of Ireland to score at the new stadium. (He also scored in the last soccer game at the old Lansdowne Road – the 2006 FAI Cup final.)

The Manchester United team at the Aviva in 2010 included Rooney, Michael Owen, Nemanja Vidić, Michael Carrick, Antonio Valencia, Javier Hernandez and was captained by John O’Shea. United won 7-1, but Mulcahy’s strike received the grandest ovation.

Owen Heary, one of the most respected footballers in the history of the league, played both with and against Mulcahy.

“Around the time we were playing together Kilkenny were one of the best hurling teams in the country and he used to be talking about his cousin, Tommy. Hurling would be a topic that would come up regularly with him, he always had that in his blood,” remembers Heary.

“Now, sometimes after he’d try make a pass to me, I’d say to him that maybe he’d be better off playing hurling!”

Mulcahy played mostly as a central midfielder but was also often deployed as a centre-back. He featured alongside Heary with Bohs in 2012 and 2013 when Heary was team captain.

But when the Dalymount board parted company with manager Aaron Callaghan midseason in the summer of 2013, Heary stepped up as interim manager. He immediately asked Mulcahy to take up the captaincy.

“In terms of leadership, he led by example on and off the pitch. He was one of those players you could trust,” says Heary.

In one of his first games as captain, Mulcahy put in a roof-lifting early tackle in a crunch fixture against Shamrock Rovers and scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory for Bohs.

“That’s the kind of leadership he showed on the pitch, the tackle was right over in front of the Bohs fans, it was a great tackle, the fans were jumping around the place. He set the tone for everyone else and then went and scored the winner.”

And Tullaroan are not the only ones to have noticed his leadership qualities – Henry Shefflin has brought Mulcahy in as part of his management team with the Kilkenny senior hurlers for next season.

“I remember going down for the opening of a pitch in Kilkenny and you could see the respect people there had for him,” adds Heary.

“The fact he is going in with the Kilkenny hurlers is testament to what he’s done. For a footballer to be asked into that sort of environment is pretty major.”

But none of it has come as a surprise in Tullaroan, as they have watched him shape their senior hurlers this season.

“When you’re talking to him or you’re in his surroundings, there’s never a doubt in your mind,” says Holland. “It’s the calmness and the professionalism, he’s so organised, everything is done when and how it should be done.”

And it’s not like he was ever really a stranger around the parish.

“We knew he scored in the last game at Lansdowne Road and he was the first Irish person to score in the Aviva, but really to us he was Tommy Walsh’s cousin inside in town there, he plays with Bohs or whoever it was at the time. That’s who he was then.”

But these days Dave Mulcahy and Tullaroan are co-writing a new chapter to an unparalleled Kilkenny sports story.

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