Brian Gartland (born 4 November 1986) is an Irish former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. He is currently an assistant coach at

St Patrick's Athletic St Patrick's Athletic Football Club, commonly known as Pat's or The Athletic, is a professional List of association football clubs in the Republic of Ireland, Irish association football club based in Inchicore, Dublin, that plays in the League ...

, working under Stephen Kenny.

Playing career

A native of

Knocklyon Knocklyon () is a suburb of the city of Dublin, located in South Dublin, Ireland. Unlike many Dublin suburbs, Knocklyon was not developed around a village; rather it largely consists of modern housing, with a number of old cottages and farmhous ...

County Dublin County Dublin ( or ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland, and holds its capital city, Dublin. It is located on the island's east coast, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Until 1994, County Dubli ...

, Gartland began his senior career at Bray Wanderers in 2005 and won their U21 Player of the Year the following year, before moving to Shelbourne at the start of 2007. Brian scored on his League of Ireland debut on the opening day of the

2007 League of Ireland The 2007 League of Ireland Premier Division was the 23rd season of the League of Ireland Premier Division. The division was made up of 12 teams. Drogheda United were champions for the first time while St Patrick's Athletic finished as runners-up ...

season and after one season at

Tolka Park Tolka Park () is an Ireland, Irish association football ground located in the Northside Dublin, north Dublin suburb of Drumcondra, Dublin, Drumcondra, on the northern banks of the River Tolka. It is currently the home ground of League of Irelan ...

moved to

Monaghan United Monaghan United F.C. is an Irish association football club based in Monaghan currently playing in the Monaghan Cavan League. The club joined the League of Ireland in 1983 and subsequently went on to play in the B Division, the First Division an ...

in 2008, where he won the 2009 Supporters Club Player of the Year. In January 2011 he moved north of the border for a -year spell with

Portadown Portadown ( ) is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town is based on the River Bann in the north of the county, about southwest of Belfast. It is in the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and had a population ...

in the Irish League. Brian Gartland joined Dundalk during the July transfer window in 2013 having left Irish League side Portadown.

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ) is the county town of County Louth, Ireland. The town is situated on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the north-east coast of Ireland, and is halfway between Dublin and Belfast, close to and south of the bor ...

manager Stephen Kenny had moved to add Gartland to his squad to strengthen his centre-half options. Gartland made his Dundalk debut when entering as an early second-half substitute in the 3–0 win at home to

Bohemians Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers. * Bohemian style, a f ...

on 12 July 2013. On his first full start, Brian scored his first goal for Dundalk against

Cork "Cork" or "CORK" may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Stopper (plug), or "cork", a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container *** Wine cork an item to seal or reseal wine Places Ireland * ...

on 19 July 2013 in Turners Cross. During the second half of the 2013 season, he formed a formidable partnership with Andy Boyle at the heart of the defence, and was a key player in Dundalk's title challenge – playing 12 matches and scoring twice. On 18 October 2013, Gartland signed a fresh one-year deal to keep him at Oriel Park for the 2014 season. In his first full season at the club, he scored 11 goals on the way to helping the side clinch the League title. He agreed on a new two-year deal in November 2014 and in

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

he was a key member of the side that claimed the Double. During the

2014–15 UEFA Europa League The 2014–15 UEFA Europa League was the 44th season of Europe's secondary club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA, and the sixth season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The 2015 UEFA Eur ...

Gartland scored against

Jeunesse Esch Jeunesse Esch (full name ''Association Sportive la Jeunesse d'Esch/Alzette'') is a professional football club based in Esch-sur-Alzette, in south-western Luxembourg. The side play in the National Division, the highest league in the country, and ...

Gartland remained near ever present in the side for Dundalk's three-in-a-row League title success in

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

and signed a new deal to stay at the club at the end of the 2017 season. Having been made club captain in

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

after injury to Stephen O'Donnell, Gartland lifted both the League title and the

FAI Cup The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Sports Direct FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as D ...

that season, as the club completed its second Double in four seasons. Gartland was part of the first Irish side to reach the play-off round of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

in August 2016 and qualified for the Europa League group stages. Gartland scored against

Rosenborg BK Rosenborg Ballklub, commonly referred to simply as Rosenborg () or RBK, is a Norwegian professional association football, football club from Trondheim that plays in Eliteserien (football), Eliteserien. The club has won a record 26 league titles ...

in the

2017–18 UEFA Champions League The 2017–18 UEFA Champions League was the 63rd season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 26th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. The final was pl ...

He also played regularly in the

2020–21 UEFA Europa League group stage The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

. Gartland picked up a serious injury to his

Anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation. In ...

on 2 April 2021, 6 minutes into his first league appearance of the season, against

Shamrock Rovers Shamrock Rovers Football Club is an Irish professional Association football, football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is List of football clubs by competit ...

Tallaght Stadium Tallaght Stadium () is an List of association football stadiums in the Republic of Ireland, association football stadium in Ireland based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club Shamrock Rovers F.C., Shamrock Rovers originally announced details of ...

Post playing career

After retiring from playing at the end of the 2022 season with

, Gartland remained with the club in the role of Head of Football Operations from January 2023 until he was sacked in May 2024. During his spell as Head of Football Operations, from April–May 2024, after the sacking of Stephen O'Donnell, he acted as co-interim manager of the first-team alongside Liam Burns. In January 2025, Gartland was awarded a sum of €64,434 compensation by

after a successful unfair dismissal claim in the

Workplace Relations Commission The Workplace Relations Commission (also known as its abbreviation, the WRC and sometimes referred to as the Commission) is the independent State agency responsible for industrial relations in Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, ...

. On 10 June 2024, it was announced that he had been appointed as an assistant coach at

, under his former manager Stephen Kenny.

Honours

Dundalk * Premier Division: 5 **

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

: 3 **

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

League of Ireland Cup The League of Ireland Cup, also referred to in Ireland as the 'League Cup', was an annual knockout competition in men's football in Ireland. It was contested by League of Ireland clubs and invited clubs from the lower levels of the Irish footb ...

: 3 **

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

President's Cup The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world except Europe as that continent competes against the United States in a similar but ...

: 3 **

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

* Champions Cup: 1 **

* Leinster Senior Cup: 1 ** 2014–15

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gartland, Brian Association footballers from Dublin (city) Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Dundalk F.C. players Portadown F.C. players Monaghan United F.C. players Shelbourne F.C. players Bray Wanderers F.C. players League of Ireland players 1986 births Living people Men's association football central defenders NIFL Premiership players 21st-century Irish sportsmen St Patrick's Athletic F.C. non-playing staff