Patrick McEleney
Northern Irish footballer (born 1992)
Patrick McEleney (born 26 September 1992) is an Irish former professional footballer and current interim manager of League of Ireland First Division side Finn Harps. During his career he played for Sunderland, Derry City (over two spells), Oldham Athletic, Dundalk (over two spells) and Ballymena United.
Club career
Sunderland
McEleney joined Sunderland from Foyle Harps on a scholarship in the summer of 2008. He signed a 2+1⁄2-year professional contract with the club in September 2008 and formed part of the under-18 and reserves teams which won their respective leagues that season under Kevin Ball. Both he and Everton youth team prospect, Shane Duffy, were granted a Civic Reception by the Mayor of Derry, Colr. Gerard Diver in the Guildhall in April 2009 to acknowledge their swift rise to prominence at their clubs. However, his time at the Stadium of Light was cut short as the player struggled with homesickness and the club agreed to release him from his contract.
Derry City
McEleney was one of the first four players signed by Stephen Kenny for Derry City following their relegation to the League of Ireland First Division, penning a two-year deal in December 2009. He was a key member of the Derry side that won the 2010 First Division title, scoring 12 league goals in 31 appearances, and he attracted interest from some English Premier League clubs and Celtic due to his performances. McEleney was nominated for the 2010 PFAI First Division Player of the Year award, ultimately losing out to Graham Cummins.
The public source identifies “Patrick McEleney” as northern Irish footballer (born 1992). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Patrick, McEleney and Northern.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Patrick McEleney”, the useful work is to connect “northern Irish footballer (born 1992)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7147143. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1992, 2008, 2009 and 2010.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Patrick McEleney” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.