Marty Carlin (born 1961 or 1962) is an Irish former

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

er who played for Robert Emmets, Red Hughs and the Donegal county team. His father John was a provincial

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

champion. His brother Sean achieved county records in the

decathlon The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of 10 track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ἄθλος (''áthlos'', or ἄ ...

and the

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field sport in which the participant athlete throws an oblate spheroid weight (object), weight called a discus in an attempt to mark a further distance than other competitors. It is a ...

and narrowly missed the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

with a

hamstring A hamstring () is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in human anatomy between the hip and the knee: from medial to lateral, the semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris. Etymology The word " ham" is derived from the Old ...

injury. Sean, as well as their brothers Eugene, Joseph and Declan, all played for Red Hughs. With his club Carlin scored 0–10 against Cill Chartha in the 1981 Donegal JFC final. He reached finals of the

Donegal Senior Football Championship The Donegal Senior Football Championship (abbreviated as Donegal SFC) is an annual football competition organised by Donegal GAA and contested by the highest-level clubs, to determine the best team in County Donegal. Since 2016, it has been know ...

in 1986 and 1991. He won a Division 1 league title in 1994. He also played other sports:

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

;

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

with Curragh Athletic and

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

with

Letterkenny Letterkenny ( , meaning "hillside of the O'Cannons"), nicknamed the Cathedral Town, is a large town in County Donegal, Ireland, on the River Swilly in the north-west of Ulster. Along with the nearby city of Derry, Letterkenny is a regional eco ...

. County manager Tom Conaghan dropped Carlin and Charlie Mulgrew from his team for one year after they played for Letterkenny in a Forster Cup final victory at Ravenhill in 1987. Carlin returned to the team and played in both the 1989

Ulster Senior Football Championship The Ulster Senior Football Championship is an inter-county competition for Gaelic football teams in the Irish province of Ulster. It is organised by the Ulster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and begins in April. The final is ...

final and replay. They were two of only six appearances he made for his county in championship football. Carlin left the county team at the end of 1990 after informing manager

Brian McEniff Brian McEniff (born 1 December 1942) is a former Gaelic football player, manager and administrator. McEniff played as a wing-back for the St Joseph's combination of clubs from Bundoran and Ballyshannon. He won seven Donegal Senior Football ...

of his decision. Thus he missed the 1992 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final, which Donegal won. At the local homecoming, clubmate

Donal Reid Donal Reid ( ; born 1961 or 1962) is an Irish former Gaelic footballer who played for Bundoran, Red Hughs and the Donegal county team. He played more than 100 times competitively for Donegal, appearing at all age levels and positions from midf ...

gave him a special mention and invited him onto the stage. After being awarded Donegal Player of the Year in 1993, Carlin was prompted to make a brief return for his county in 1994. Since retiring, he has endured

bowel cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carlin, Marty 1960s births Living people Donegal inter-county Gaelic footballers Gaelic footballers who switched code