Seán McCarthy (born 8 February 1966) is an Irish retired hurler who played as a right wing-back for the Cork senior team.
McCarthy first arrived on the inter-county scene at the age of eighteen when he first linked up with the Cork minor team before later joining the under-21 and junior sides.
For most of his career Ballinhassig operated at junior level, with McCarthy winning several divisional championship medals.
McCarthy first played for Cork on the minor team on 18 April 1984 in a 1–18 to 3–4 Munster quarter-final defeat of Kerry.
Galway were once again the red-hot favourites and justified this tag by going seven points ahead in the opening thirty-five minutes thanks to a masterful display by Joe Cooney.
The game was effectively decided on an incident which occurred midway through the second half when Cork goalkeeper Ger Cunningham blocked a point-blank shot from Martin Naughton with his nose.
Cork went on to win a high-scoring and open game of hurling by 5–15 to 2–21 giving McCarthy an All-Ireland medal.
At half-time Cork were two points ahead, however, two second-half goals by John Power and Michael "Titch" Phelan supplemented a first-half D. J. Carey penalty which gave Kilkenny a 3–10 to 1–12 victory.