Martin Carney

Martin Carney (Irish:Máirtín Ó Cearnaigh) is an Irish former Gaelic footballer.

Early life

Carney was born in Bundoran, County Donegal, and grew up in Ballyshannon, He was educated at St Eunan's College, Letterkenny, where he played Gaelic football for the school team. He is the older brother of former college president Michael Carney. He is one of three 20th-century footballers to play for the Donegal county football team while still attending the college; the others were Seamus Hoare and Paul McGettigan.

Another brother, Dermot, was principal at St Ciaran's Community School in Kells. Carney is a nephew of Jackie Carney.

Sporting career

Carney is a former inter-county footballer for Donegal and Mayo.

In 2002 and 2003, he was one of the selection team for the Coca-Cola International Rules Series.

Carney was at one time[when?] the favourite to take over from John Maughan as manager of the Mayo senior football side, but quickly ruled himself out of contention. John O'Mahony became manager, with Carney acting as a statistician and video analyst.

He previously managed Mayo's U21 football side, taking them to two All-Ireland finals in 1994 and 1995, both which they failed to win, as the minors did in 1991 also.

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

Media career

Following retirement as a player, Carney maintained a national presence as commentator for RTÉ and TV analyst with The Sunday Game.

He went viral after the 2026 All-Ireland SFC final, and responded by stating he was “embarrassed completely”, but that he had got “a big kiss” from a woman "blowing full on" in the middle of it all. The sounds emanating from Carney at full-time were described as being of the sort “that if you heard them in any other scenario, you'd be calling for an ambulance or a very experienced vet”.

Professional life

Carney is former principal at Scoil Mhuire agus Padraig in Swinford.

Career statistics