Martin Gavigan is an old Gaelic footballer who played as a defender for Ard an Rátha, the Donegal county team and the Ireland international rules football team.

He was a member of Donegal's 1992 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship winning team. He played for the county from 1988 until 1995.[citation needed]

He played against Armagh in the 1990 Ulster final, won by Donegal.[1]

He started at centre-back in the 1992 All-Ireland Final as Donegal defeated Dublin by a scoreline of 0–18 to 0–14. He would win an All Star in 1992 too.[2]

Known as "Rambo", he was a schoolteacher.[3] In 1992, Hogan Stand was able to indicate that: "Even objective observers of the game in Donegal recognised that the Shovlin, Gavigan and Reid combination probably represented the best line of defence in the country. The Dublin trio of Curran, Carr and Heery were the only other combination which vied for that tag, it was suggested".[4]

He vice-captained Ireland for the 1990 Tour of Australia.[5]

In May 2012, the Irish Independent named him in its selection of Donegal's "greatest team" spanning the previous 50 years.[6]

He got married the Saturday after the 1992 All-Ireland final.[7] His brother Luke also featured for Donegal.[5] Luke's son (and Martin's nephew), Luke Jnr, based with the Seán Mac Cumhaills club, captained the Donegal under-20 team that reached the 2020 Ulster final.[5][8]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ McNulty, Chris (18 July 2015). "Donegal's 1990 Ulster winners will be honoured tomorrow — here is their story". Retrieved 18 July 2015.
  2. ^ Foley, Alan (8 January 2009). "The heroes of '92 — Where are they now?". Donegal Democrat. Archived from the original on 18 December 2015. Retrieved 8 January 2009.
  3. ^ "Ardara's Martin Gavigan: The man the Donegal fans call 'Rambo'". Hogan Stand. 30 April 1993.
  4. ^ "Reid, Donal". Hogan Stand. 31 July 1992.
  5. ^ a b c Craig, Frank (5 March 2020). "[Luke] Gavigan wary of Tyrone threat". Donegal News. p. 77. Luke Gavigan… the Tir Chonaill skipper… comes from formidable footballing stock. His dad Luke was a member of the Donegal senior football squad that won the 1992 All-Ireland title. His uncle Martin… also vice-captained the victorious 1990 Ireland Compromise Rules side that toured Australia. The MacCumhaills clubman says…
  6. ^ "GAA: Donegal's greatest team of the past 50 years named". 14 May 2012. Retrieved 14 May 2012.
  7. ^ "1992 All-Ireland Senior Football Final: Dublin v Donegal". YouTube. 21 March 2020.
  8. ^ Loughran, Neil (9 March 2020). "Second half scoring spree sees Tyrone land Ulster title as Donegal rue black card". The Irish News. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
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