Martin Gavigan is an oldGaelic footballer who played as a defender forArd an Rátha, theDonegal county team and theIreland international rules football team.
He was a member of Donegal's1992 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship winning team. He played for the county from 1988 until 1995.[citation needed]
He played againstArmagh in the 1990 Ulster final, won by Donegal.[1]
He started at centre-back in the 1992 All-Ireland Final as Donegal defeatedDublin by a scoreline of 0–18 to 0–14. He would win anAll 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 theShovlin, Gavigan andReid combination probably represented the best line of defence in the country. The Dublin trio ofCurran,Carr andHeery were the only other combination which vied for that tag, it was suggested".[4]
He vice-captainedIreland for the1990 Tour of Australia.[5]
In May 2012, theIrish 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 brotherLuke also featured for Donegal.[5] Luke's son (and Martin's nephew), Luke Jnr, based with theSeán Mac Cumhaills club, captained the Donegal under-20 team that reached the 2020 Ulster final.[5][8]
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…