Colm "Wooly" Parkinson is a retired Irish Gaelic footballer, and journalist.
Playing career
Club
Parkinson was a decorated underage player with Portlaoise, winning county titles at every underage grade before graduating to the senior team in 1997. In his first year at senior level Portlaoise reached the county final losing to Stradbally. He would win his first title two years later in 1999, scoring 0–03 in a narrow win against St Josephs. It was Portlaoise's first county title since 1991. He starred again for Portlaoise in 2001 final scoring 1-02 as Portlaoise beat a fancied St. Josephs claiming his second Laois title. He captained Portlaoise to his third title in 2004 winning man of the match in the final against Emo. Portlaoise went on to win the Leinster Club title that year beating Skryne in the decider. Portlaoise would go on to beat Crossmaglen in the All Irelandsemi final but lost out by a point in the All Ireland final against Ballina. Parkinson caused controversy in Portlaoise when he decided to travel to south east Asia for seven weeks after the Leinster win. That year he earned the Leinster Club Player of the year and the Laois player of the year for his performances for Portlaoise. He won two more titles for Portlaoise - winning man of the match in the final again in 2007 against Stradbally and beating Timahoe in 2008 before surprising everyone by transferring to the Parnells club in Dublin in 2009. He played for Parnells for two seasons, winning a division 2 league title. He returned to Portlaoise again in 2011, winning his sixth and final county title against Graiguecullen.
Inter-county
Woolly started his inter-county career with Laois at minor level in 1995, losing out to Westmeath after two replays in the Leinster final. He lined out at right corner back on that team. The following year Laois would make no mistake and claim Leinster and All Ireland minor titles. He played three years with the U21's winning a Leinster title in 1998. Laois went on to beat a fancied Galway team in the semi final before losing out to a brilliant Kerry team in the All Ireland final. The same year he made his Laois senior debut against Westmeath scoring two points from wing back. To round off a great year in '98 he was selected for the International rules squad. In 1999 he won a Sigerson cup with Tralee IT but missed out on the final because of a hamstring injury. Despite an excellent start to his career at intercounty level, Parkinson would go on to have a chequered career at senior level. Despite some high points - between travelling, injuries and falling out with managers there was never much consistency or continuity - and his final act as a senior player was to leave the Laois panel in 2011 under Justin McNulty.
Career
After completing a degree in finance Parkinson started out selling limestone for McKeon Stone in Stradbally before moving into finance, working as a fund accountant for seven years. In 2012 he quit his job in finance and returned to college to study a masters in journalism in DCU. On completing the masters he began working for Newstalk's 'off the ball' show as a co-presenter, GAA analyst and sideline reporter. After three years with Off The Ball he left to present online shows for SportsJOE. There he launched a football and hurling podcast show '', which goes out four times per week and already has over 4 million listens. He also presented an online sports show, SportsJOE live. In 2017 he opened a tapas restaurant on main street Portlaoise called La Lola with his partner. The restaurant has since closed due to poor food and thus poor turnover.
Personal life
Parkinson is a supporter of Everton Football Club, and also widely acknowledged as a wind-up merchant on Twitter.
