Gallagher brothers starring on judo mats across the world

Strabane’s Gallagher brothers are still teenagers, but they have already achieved remarkable levels of success on judo mats around the world.

Not only have they impressed in Ireland, where they were both crowned national champions just before Christmas, but they have also achieved success at international level, with the siblings each picking up a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Judo Championships in the South African city of Qgeberha, formerly known as Port Elizabeth, in 2023.

Those achievements are definitely two of the career highlights so far for Zack and Shane, who are keen to push on to the very top.

“ I’ve won the All-Ireland Championships three years in a row now and I won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Championships in South Africa,” Zack said.

“ We’ve also won medals in London and other places, but the Commonwealth Championships were class, it was a great experience.

“ My aim was to win it but it didn’t go to plan, so you have to go for what’s next and that, for me, was the bronze medal.

“At the minute, I’m training away, representing the uni [University of Ulster] and doing as much as I can, but the ultimate goal is to get to the Olympics, so after uni, I’m thinking, I might go full-time and fully pursue it, but we’ll see how it goes.”

Not to be outdone by his older brother, Shane picked up his first Irish crown in December and he also had the opportunity to represent his country last summer, which is something he hopes to do many times in the future as he also aims to, one day, compete at an Olympic Games.

“It was the first time for myself to win an Irish title, so it was definitely good,” he beamed.

“It was a good achievement and the bronze medal in South Africa when I lost in the semi’s but won the bronze medal match was brilliant. And I got the opportunity to represent Ireland in June 2024 at the European’s in Birmingham where I won one match and lost one. It wasn’t my day but to get the opportunity to represent my country is something I was grateful for.

“Hopefully there will be lots of opportunities in the future and then I can add medals to my name, which will be the next step, and then hopefully I can get to the Olympics.

“If it’s not 2028, it will be 2032. I’ll keep pushing because that’s the goal, it always has been and that’s not going to change. You have to reach for the stars.”

The elder of the brothers, 19-year-old Zack, who describes himself as the ‘smaller bigger brother’, given Shane’s more imposing physical stature, competes in the under-60kg class, while his bigger little brother battles it out in the under-73kg category.

And both feel the disparity in size between the two isn’t a disadvantage when it comes to training together, but it’s a distinct positive as it allows them to adapt and develop their fighting style and technique against a different opponent than they would normally face.

“Shane, my wee brother, is in a higher weight category than me, so I’m the smaller bigger brother,” Zack laughed. “That’s a good thing because we avoid each other in competition but in training, he’s stronger and bigger so when I go to fight people my own size it definitely benefits me in terms of the strength differences.

“But it also helps him due to my speed.”

Those sentiments were echoed by Shane, who admits training with someone who is more nimble and quicker certainly helps him when it comes to tackling his regular opponents, while the addition of sibling rivalry keeps both of them striving for success.

“It helps having my brother pushing me along,” he acknowledged. “Especially when I was younger, if I didn’t want to go, if I was shy and didn’t want to chat to people, I had someone else there on the mat, so it was always good.

“And when it comes to training, he’s more nimble than me, which definitely helps because the guys at my weight aren’t as quick so I feel quicker because I have to speed up when I’m training with my brother.

“Plus, it’s always a case of trying to do better than each other!”

The pair started judo at the same time, following in the footsteps of their dad and uncle, both of whom were practitioners of the martial art years before.

And they admit, once they started, there was no turning back and not only has their participation in the sport brought success on the mats, but it has also helped them massively off them.

“Once we started that was it!,” Zack exclaimed. “It suited us both and we both like the discipline you get from it in terms of, for me, it gives me a path, I know what I can do and it helps me in life outside of the sport also. It helps me at uni,it gives me discipline and helps me be determined to do anything.

“Without the sport I wouldn’t have that.”

Shane, who is in his final year of A-Levels at Holy Cross College in Strabane and who hopes to go to University of Ulster Magee in Derry in the autumn, also fell in love with the sport immediately and he too has taken as much from it as it has given to him.

“It’s part of me now, it’s my whole life, I just love it,” he beamed.

“It’s the discipline and getting me out of the house because I love the training. I used to play football and whatever, but I was never really into it, I was into the rush I get from this.”

The brothers began their judo journeys in the Bogside, Derry, at Pilots Row where they developed a solid platform from which to build, further honing their skills at their current gym under the tutelage of Paul Green at Konarakai Judo Club.

“Pilots Row gave us a good foundation and we moved up and up but then we changed coaches and it was then we started to get on teams and performance programmes,” Zack acknowledged.

“It all started there [Pilots Row] Paul Green has made a massive difference to our careers. He’s one of the Ireland performance coaches and has a club in Derry.

“My original coach referred us to him, to help us take the next step, which was great for us.”

The move to Konarakai and Green’s instruction came at the right time for the Gallagher brothers, who were keen to improve their skills further.

However, Lockdown then struck in 2020 but rather than stunting their development, it actually proved a massive benefit to the brothers, who trained throughout and fine tuned their skills together.

“It came to the point we were top of the class [at Pilots Row] but we weren’t really, really good until Lockdown when me and Shane put the work in,” Zack explained.

“A lot of people slacked off then, but we came back stronger. We were stuck together constantly, but it was good because it meant we could train and help each other.”

Their dedication to their craft continues to this day, with training taking place throughout the week and they have also started learning jiu-jitsu to improve their grappling skills.