Whilst at Everton, McGeady was loaned to Sheffield Wednesday and Preston North End before joining Sunderland in the summer of 2017.

[4] McGeady was born in Scotland, but opted to declare for the Republic of Ireland national team, qualifying by way of his Irish grandparents.

[5][7] McGeady began his career with Queen's Park,[8] having played as a child with a local youth team, Busby Boys Club.

[14] The 2006–07 season saw Maloney leave Celtic for Aston Villa in January 2007, giving McGeady an opportunity to secure a regular starting place.

He played regularly from that point in the Celtic team that again won the SPL championship[15] and also qualified for the knockout stage of the Champions League for the first time in club history, defeating Manchester United, Benfica and Copenhagen in the group stage before losing 1–0 to eventual champions AC Milan in extra time.

[32] He was included in the Russian Football Union's list of 33 top players, published in December 2010, which named McGeady the second-best right winger.

[33] The 2011–12 season started with McGeady scoring a late goal against FC Basel, putting Spartak through to the last 16 of the UEFA Europa League.

[37] In May 2013, McGeady received a red card for the second time in the season after he struck an opponent, and then made an offensive gesture as he left the pitch.

[43] In January 2014, McGeady joined English club Everton of the Premier League on a four-and-a-half-year contract for an undisclosed fee.

[45] McGeady was mainly used as a substitute as he made just three starts in his first season, helping Everton to record their best-ever points tally in the Premier League era (72) and a fifth-place finish.

[46] McGeady scored his first goal for Everton on 16 August 2014, curling in the ball in off the post in a 2–2 draw with Leicester City on the opening day of the 2014–15 Premier League season.

[47] A knee injury in January 2015 saw McGeady lose his place in the team to Aaron Lennon, who signed for Everton during the transfer window that same month.

[55] Playing regularly appeared to help McGeady recover some of his best form and he was awarded the Championship Player of the Month for February after scoring three goals and providing four assists.

Luton Town's James Collins won the individual accolade;[65] McGeady was voted the Supporters Player of the Year.

[70] McGeady made his first Sunderland appearance in over a year under new head coach Lee Johnson, playing 77 minutes in a 1–0 home defeat to Wigan Athletic on 6 December 2020.

[71] On 13 February 2021, McGeady was part of the team that won 4–1 against promotion rivals Doncaster Rovers, with him providing all 4 assists to Sunderland's goals, all scored by Charlie Wyke.

[76] McGeady signed a one-year contract with Scottish club Hibernian on 24 June 2022, reuniting him with former Sunderland manager Lee Johnson.

[77] McGeady made 4 Scottish League Cup appearances for the club in July but an ankle injury kept him out of action for a long spell.

[86] After Queen's Park he joined Celtic, who had a policy of not permitting their youths to play for their school teams due to conflicting kick off times.

[94] In the first leg of the UEFA Euro 2012 play-off against Estonia, McGeady provided the assist for the first goal when his cross found the head of Keith Andrews who scored.

[96] McGeady set up Ireland's first and only goal of the tournament from a free-kick, converted by Leicester City's Sean St Ledger in the 3–1 defeat to Croatia.

[97] In Martin O'Neill's first game as Irish manager, McGeady scored his first international goal for over two years in a 3–0 win over Latvia.

This trademark move of his has come to be known as the McGeady Spin in his honour, and has been included in EA Sports' FIFA video game series.