lit a candle 5h ago36. My dad used to stream Dublin matches on his laptop in our kitchen in New Jersey and I'd sit there not really understanding the rules just watching him watch it. This one hit him hard.
Their story
Darragh Nelson was a Gaelic footballer who captained Ballyboden St Enda's to the 2016 All-Ireland senior club football title and was a member of the Dublin panels that won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship in 2011 and 2013. He died on Wednesday 7 October 2026, aged 36, after a battle…
Darragh Nelson was a Gaelic footballer who captained Ballyboden St Enda's to the 2016 All-Ireland senior club football title and was a member of the Dublin panels that won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship in 2011 and 2013. He died on Wednesday 7 October 2026, aged 36, after a battle with cancer.
A Ballyboden St Enda's clubman from south Dublin, Nelson won three Dublin and two Leinster senior football championships with the club. In 2016 he lifted the Andy Merrigan Cup at Croke Park after the Andy McEntee-managed Boden side beat Castlebar Mitchels in the All-Ireland club final. He also played for DIT, winning a freshers title in 2010.
With Dublin he was part of the All-Ireland winning panels of 2011 and 2013, and along the way won Leinster medals and a National League Division 1 title in 2013. He finished his inter-county career at the end of the 2014 season.
In 2022 Nelson was diagnosed with extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma, a rare sarcoma. He underwent chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery, and in November 2024 a scan found the cancer had spread to his lung, hip and pancreas. Speaking to the Irish Independent in 2025 about the possibility of losing his arm in surgery, he said: "I just said, 'I've had my day. I don't care if you have to take the arm. I just want this cancer out of me.'"
Nelson spoke openly about his illness in the years that followed, and his honesty about the treatment and its toll drew wide support from the GAA community. Throughout, he stayed close to Ballyboden, and those around the club said he followed its teams and remained part of its life to the very end.
Ballyboden St Enda's led the tributes. Former teammate Darren O'Reilly said Nelson was still supporting the club in his last days and that he would be fondly remembered and loved. He is survived by his wife Lauren, daughters Molly and Sophie, parents Susan and John, and sisters Emma and Kate.
His name is part of Ballyboden St Enda's history. Darren O'Reilly said that his photograph is the first one anyone sees on walking into the dressing room at Páirc Uí Mhurchú, and that it will stay there for as long as those dressing rooms last.
Biography adapted from Irish Examiner, Irish Independent, Irish Mirror and The42.
In their own words
“I just said, 'I've had my day. I don't care if you have to take the arm. I just want this cancer out of me.'”
Interview with the Irish Independent, as quoted by the Irish Examiner
Photos
1by People Forever
same, my uncle rang my mam about this before it was even on the news here