Stephen Farrelly () (born 28 January 1978) is an Irish professional wrestler and actor, best known by his ring name Sheamus, . He is signed with WWE and competes on the Raw program, currently tag teaming with Cesaro, where they are former 2 time Raw Tag Team Champions.
Prior to joining WWE, Farrelly was also a two-time International Heavyweight Champion during his tenure in Irish Whip Wrestling. He is a three-time World Champion, having held the WWE Championship on two occasions and is the current World Heavyweight Champion in his first reign. He also won the King of the Ring in 2010 and the Royal Rumble in 2012, as well as the WWE United States Championship once.
Farrelly was born in Cabra, Dublin and was raised within the city. His father, Mark, was an amateur bodybuilder. Farrelly speaks fluent Gaelic, having attended Scoil Caoimhin Primary and Secondary School, a Gaelscoil During his school years he sang in the Palestrina Choir until the age of thirteen, as part of which he appeared on the Late Late Show and Live at Three television programmes. He played Gaelic football for the Erin's Isle team where he was declared sports star of the month. He also played rugby for the National College of Ireland, where he gained a National Diploma.
Farrelly is a former IT technician. He also worked as security for a nightclub which led to him occasionally working personal security for Bono and Larry Mullen Jr. of U2 as well as Denise van Outen.
Farrelly's inspiration into a professional wrestling career came from watching both British wrestling from ITV's "World of Sport" and American wrestling from the World Wrestling Federation on Sky One. On the advice of Bret Hart, Farrelly began training in Larry Sharpe's Monster Factory wrestling school in April 2002, alongside Tank Toland, Cliff Compton and Cindy Rogers. Six weeks later he officially debuted as a fan favorite under the name Sheamus O'Shaunessy against Robert Pigeon. It was during this time that he developed the nickname the "Irish Curse" after low-blowing an opponent. He soon suffered a serious neck injury after botching a hip toss which sidetracked his career for two years.
Farrelly soon developed his wrestling character by drawing on Celtic mythology. Wanting to move away from limiting Irish stereotypes of lucky charms, leprechauns and alcoholism, he instead wanted to portray an Irish warrior. Going to a Gaelscoil, Farelly grew up aware of the four cycles of Irish mythology and, inspired by the artwork of Jim Fitzpatrick, incorporated the sword and axe-wielding imagery into his gimmick. This included the design of his own pendant, the crossos, which combines the Celtic cross with a Celtic War sword to illustrate his character's "indigenous origins with a hybrid of warrior strength matched with a strong ethical centre."
In May 2004, still using the ring name Sheamus O'Shaunessy, Farrelly returned to wrestling at the newly opened Irish Whip Wrestling (IWW) school in Dublin. He then made his debut match for the promotion at their Mount Temple show on 9 July against Mark Burns, who he easily defeated. He went on to win a battle royal the following month.
O'Shaunessy spent the rest of the year engaged in a rivalry with Vid Vain after losing to his tag team partner Joey Cabray the same night as winning the battle royal. On 22 and 23 October they traded wins, leading to O'Shaunessy recruiting help from CJ Summers to help defeat the tag team on 24 October. Still O'Shaunessy failed to defeat Vain in singles action the following day.Despite these losses, his impressive showings earned him a place against Alex Shane in a guest match for the Frontier Wrestling Alliance (FWA) British Heavyweight Championship. Despite putting on a strong showing and being close to winning, his friend Red Vinny interfered in the match and cost him the championship.
In March 2005 he avenged this loss by teaming with Raven to defeat Shane and Vinny. This victory was part of a winning streak over the end of March where O'Shaunessy wrestled twice a day on 24, 25, 26 – including an 11 man Rumble win – and 27 March with a standard tag match and a ten-man tag team match. This series of victories, aside from one loss by disqualification to Vain, put him good stead for the one-day tournament held in County Kildare to crown the inaugural IWW International Heavyweight Champion. On March 28, O'Shaunessy put an end to his main rivalries when he defeated Vinny and then Vain in the quarter and semi finals, respectively. He met Darren Burridge in the final match and won to become IWW's first champion, but had to compete again in an evening show in Dublin, defeating Burridge and Vinny once more in a tag match alongside Vain.
O'Shaunessy's first successful title defence came against Burridge the following month but Burridge would not let his grudge rest, continuing to attack O'Shaunessy and finally costing him the title during a match against D'Lo Brown on 29 May. O'Shaunessy earned revenge in July by defeating Burridge in a grudge match, though lost to him in an arm wrestling contest the following day. Still, he continued on his quest to regain the title by winning a contendership three way match against Vinny and Red Viper in August setting him up to regain the International Heavyweight Championship in October from Brown in Newcastle upon Tyne in England.
After defending his title against Vampiro O'Shaunessy found himself embroiled in a new feud with rising Scottish wrestling star "Thee" Drew Galloway, whom he later admitted was his toughest opponent. On 28 January 2006, he received his first championship match, evolving their rivalry from previous non-title contests. The rivalry quickly took on a patriotic flavour, with Galloway's blue colours of Scotland clashing O'Shaunnesy's green colours of Ireland, mirroring the Old Firm football derby between Glasgow Rangers and Glasgow Celtic, respectively. This football allusion became particularly prominent when the two met again at Verona Football Club once again for the title, though the match changed into a Lumberjack match, the result and champion remained the same.
With Galloway defeated, O'Shaunessy continued to dominate by again defending his title against Vampiro on 17 March. Galloway earned himself a two out of three falls match against the champion the following day, however, which O'Shaunessy won two falls to one; the next day produced the same result in a match O'Shaunessy claimed was his best on the independent circuit. With Galloway briefly answered, O'Shaunessy took on the newcomer Pierre Marcaeu and defeated him in two successive title matches only to find Galloway had earned another shot. With their rivalry intensifying, Galloway's next challenge to O'Shaunnesy was given the stipulation of a Last Man Standing match. O'Shaunessy retained the title, as he also did in June with the same stipulation. Finally, on 28 August, O'Shaunessy lost the IwW International Heavyweight Championship in a singles match to Galloway in what would be his last appearance with the promotion.
As well as wrestling in Ireland, O'Shaunessy occasionally travelled to Great Britain to make appearances on the British independent circuit. In April 2006 he was brought into Wales' Celtic Wrestling promotion as a contender for their top title but was defeated by the champion, Chris Recall. Later that year in November, he was employed by London's LDN Wrestling to appear on their "Capital TV" show where, after quickly defeating William Hill, he gained an LDN Championship match against Tex Benedict which ended with Benedict winning by disqualification and O'Shaunessy attacking him after the match.