Colm Ó Snodaigh

Colm Ó Snodaigh (born 22 May 1966) is a member of the traditional Irish folk group Kíla. He is also a writer and a former sportsman, winning honours in football, hurling and tennis.

Ó Snodaigh was born in Dublin and reared on the south side of Dublin near Sandymount, he is a native Irish speaker and was educated at both Scoil Lorcáin and Coláiste Eoin. He completed a degree in Physiotherapy at University College Dublin in 1988.

He is the son of Irish language publisher and author Pádraig Ó Snodaigh and artist Cliodhna Cussen. His brothers are Fergus, Aengus, Cormac, Rónán and Rossa. His great uncle Dennis Cussen ran in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, in the 100 yards competition, held the world record for fastest time over 100 yards on grass for a time and also played rugby for Ireland 15 times scoring a famous hat-trick of tries against England in 1926.

Ó Snodaigh plays the flute, tin whistle, guitar, saxophone and percussion. He also sings with the group Kíla and released a solo album titled Giving in 2007 where he sings on all the tracks. The album is a mixture of Colm's own compositions written in both Irish and English and was produced by Shay Fitzgerald. He released another album in 1990 of 10 acoustic pop songs in Irish, entitled Éist. He is currently working on his follow-up to Giving.

Ó Snodaigh has written one book of short stories entitled Turasóireacht (Tripping/Tourism) which was published in 1995 by Coiscéim. Subsequent stories have been published in the anthologies Scéalta ón Aer (2000) ag Cathal Póirtéir and in Lón Léitheoireacht 2 (2008). His début novella Pat the Pipe – Píobaire (piper) was published in 2007 and a translation of Sandy Fitzgerald's children's story Céal & an Buachaill Gorm (Cale & the Blue Boy) was published in early 2008. He wrote a monthly article on music for online magazine Beo.ie from 2006 to 2011 and these articles formed the basis of a collection of essays on music in a book called Istigh sa Cheol (2013). One of the articles An Ghaoth Aneas was included in the New Island publication Sunday Miscellany – A Selection from 2006 to 2008 following its broadcast in 2008 on RTÉ Radio 1. This same article was included, along with a sister article Ag Máirseáil i dTreo na Gréine, as a tribute to Pádraig Ó Cléirigh, in a posthumous collection of Pádraig's short stories published by Coiscéím in 2010, entitled An Bhréag & Scéalta Eile. In 2017 his book on a campaign of civil disobedience in the west Kerry Gaeltacht, Dún Chaoin was published Dún Chaoin - Oscail an Scoil.

Football

After periods with Shamrock Rovers, Shelbourne and University College Dublin A.F.C., Ó Snodaigh was a squad member of the successful Bray Wanderers side that won the 1989–90 FAI Cup in at Lansdowne Road with a 3–0 victory against St Francis, lost in the European Cup Winners Cup tie against Trabzonspor, and finished runners-up in the 1990–91 League of Ireland First Division. That same year he was a central member of Wanderers reserve side that finished runners-up in the League of Ireland B Division. He won the B team player of the year award in 1990 and was a member of the first team that lost the LFA President's Cup final 3–1 against Dundalk.

In time, he left Bray and became a member of Leinster Senior League side Pegasus where, over a seven-year period, he was a member of their FAI Intermediate Cup winning team in 1992 against Bluebell United, top scorer in 1996/7, selected for the Leinster Senior League selection team in 1992, was captain of the side that got relegated from the senior division in 1997 following a defeat away to Bluebell and played in every position for the side except goalkeeper.

Hurling

Following retirement from soccer, due largely to a serious knee injury, Ó Snodaigh, at the behest of his brother, Rossa, joined the St Kevin's Junior C hurling team. In two seasons, he helped them win the Junior C Dublin Shield twice and the league once. In his second season, he scored many goals. He mostly played at right or left full forward.

Tennis

He played tennis for twenty years at the Sandymount tennis club, Claremont and latterly Claremont/Railway Union. He played Class 2 for the senior team, in the summer league and won the U19 singles title.