Barry Cassidy is a Gaelic football referee. An inter-county championship referee since 2012,[1] Cassidy has been described as the top referee in Ulster.[2] A member of the Derry GAA club Bellaghy, Cassidy refereed the inaugural Tailteann Cup final.
Cassidy refereed his first Derry Senior Football Championship final in 2010, Coleraine v Ballinderry Shamrocks.[1] He also refereed the 2013 Derry SFC final, won by Ballinderry Shamrocks against Ballinascreen.[1]
Cassidy worked on the 2011 All-Ireland Minor Football Championship, as a linesman.[1]
His first National Football League game came the following year (when he had to be escorted away by stewards after annoying Mayo supporters whose loss that game was).[1]
He was given charge of the 2018 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship semi-final between Dublin and Galway, though he had never previously refereed even a quarter-final before that year, when he had taken charge of Galway v Kerry in the 2018 Super 8s.[1]
Cassidy refereed the 2020 Ulster Senior Football Championship final between Cavan and Donegal.[3]
He took charge of the 2021 Munster Senior Football Championship final between Cork and Kerry.[4]
Even though Maurice Deegan had originally been announced as the 2022 Tailteann Cup Final referee, Cassidy ended up taking charge in Deegan's absence.[5] Deegan had a sickness, said Brian Gavin in his analysis of that game.[6] He had contracted COVID-19 and this ruled him out of what would have been his final inter-county game.[7]
Cassidy was then named as linesman for the 2022 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final.[8]
Cassidy's father was a referee.[2] He is a married man, Claire being the wife.[2]