His career included two All-Ireland Championship victories with the Dublin senior hurling team.
[1] After moving to Dublin at an early age, Cleary joined the Faughs club in Templeogue.
[2] Cleary's success at club level saw him drafted onto the Dublin senior hurling team.
Cleary also won four Leinster Senior Hurling Championship titles in a five-year period between 1917 and 1921.
Cleary was born just outside Nenagh, County Tipperary—the youngest of nine children of Cornelius and Annie (née Martin).