General
- Thursday January 8th, 2026 @ 18:00
Darragh Nugent Signs For The Saints
St Patrick's Athletic are delighted to announce the signing of Darragh Nugent from Shamrock Rovers.
Nugent has made over 150 senior appearances, 130 of them in the League of Ireland with Shamrock Rovers 2, Longford Town (loan), Drogheda United (loan) and Shamrock Rovers, where he also made 19 European appearances.
Following the captures of Max Mata and Ronan Boyce, Darragh is the third new signing ahead of the 2026 campaign. He will wear the number 16 shirt at Richmond Park.
Known as "Nudger", the 24-year-old midfielder has won two League of Ireland Premier Division titles and an FAI Cup.
Our newest Saint said:
"I'm delighted (to be here) and can't wait to get going, it feels great.
Stephen Kenny got in touch with me during the break, I had a few conversations with him, we spoke about the plans for the season and for myself and once I spoke to him I knew it was something I wanted to be a part of.
I've got some good experience over recent years and I feel at my age, now is the time for me to kick on.
Richmond Park has always been a really difficult place to come as an opposition player, with the fans on top of you it's an intimidating ground so it will be good to be on the other side now and I'm looking forward to playing in front of the fans here."
Watch Darragh's full interview on our Youtube channel below.
Manager Stephen Kenny has been welcoming Nugent to the club:
"Darragh came into the League of Ireland at a young age but has already amassed 150 senior appearances, including almost 100 games for Shamrock Rovers over the last few seasons which encompassed quite a few League titles.
You don't play that amount of games for this current Shamrock Rovers team unless you are a good player. He has also played 19 matches in either qualifiers or group stages of European competition and he's only just turned 24.
He is a player who's been under the radar because he has qualities that we don't have. He's 6'1'' and has a high level of athleticism and work rate and a brilliant attitude.
Darragh has flexibly in his position in midfield, he can play in an advanced area and make runs behind the strikers which opens up the play and the pitch. He continually makes unselfish runs to help his teammates and is a threat himself.
He can also play in that holding position to protect the defence with his speed, physicality and ball recoveries, so he can do a number of jobs for us depending on what is required.
Darragh is someone who we feel has the capacity to improve and to get better and he is hungry to do well here. I feel there is an honesty about him which is important for us as a group, hopefully he settles in well and can hit the ground running."
While Sporting Director Ger O'Brien added:
"We're really happy to add Darragh to the squad and we welcome him to the club.
He's someone we've been aware of from his time at the Shamrock Rovers Academy and his career has progressed very well since then with the loan spells at Longford Town and Drogheda and more recently with Shamrock Rovers both domestically and in Europe.
At 24, Darragh is it a good age to kick on in his career, he is an excellent player, who is strong, athletic and quick and he will he will add a lot to us. We look forward to working with him."
Darragh's first photos as a St Patrick's Athletic player are available via Inpho Sports website.
St Patrick's Athletic can also confirm the departure of Jake Mulraney by mutual consent. Mulraney arrived at Richmond Park ahead of the 2023 season and was part of our FAI Cup winning squad that year. He made 123 appearances for the club, scoring 19 times. Everyone at St Pat's thanks Jake for his time in Inchicore and wishes him well for the future.
