Pádraig Hughes

Pádraig Hughes is a Gaelic football referee from Armagh and a regular member of the Gaelic Athletic Association's Championship Panels, the group of match officials who take inter-county games. His career has had some memorable moments. In the 2013 National Football League he was officiating a Dublin game in Ballybofey when he injured himself in an encounter with Eamonn Doherty and had to be stretchered off the field. The injury was serious enough to rule him out of the 2013 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, and Ciarán Brannigan of Down was brought in as his replacement. He later refereed the 2014 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final, in which Donegal played Kerry. In the 2015 Munster Senior Football Championship final he awarded Kerry a second-half penalty against Cork, a decision that drew an unprecedented public statement of criticism from the Cork County Board, which later apologised to him.