Martin McHugh

Martin McHugh (born 1961) is a former Gaelic footballer, manager and media pundit.

McHugh wore the number 13 jersey for the 1983 Ulster Senior Football Championship final against Cavan. McHugh either contributed 0–6 (The Irish News, 2019) He spent time in hospital with a punctured lung after the 1983 final. He then played in Donegal's All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Meath. He was substituted and later said himself: "That was a bad day… It was one of them games… It was one of them games where the game just bypassed me. I never got into the game, I don't exactly know what happened". In a restaurant in Cavan on the way back, someone came over and rubbed salt into his wounds by saying: "Where was your famous Martin McHugh today?", seemingly oblivious to McHugh's presence.

In total he won three Ulster senior titles with Donegal: 1983, 1990 and 1992. Tony Boyle "selfishly" wanted McHugh to carry on playing.

McHugh had also received an offer to manage Cavan in 1994, which he took up shortly after being rejected by Donegal. He resigned in August 1997, citing his wish to put his family life first.

McHugh has also managed Sligo IT, leading the college to Sigerson Cup success.

He was managing his club's senior team in 2016.

However, he told the Donegal News in January 2022: "I would still love to manage Donegal. I'd love to manage my own county… It would be something I'd like to do. There's a bucket list there when you get to my age, and I'd still like to have a crack with Donegal". and was also writing for the Irish Daily Star newspaper. In 2012, as Donegal advanced towards their second All-Ireland success, McHugh appeared on The Sunday Game on RTÉ. He was on the programme the night Donegal won the 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final.

At the end of the 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final, with McHugh on the sideline working for BBC television coverage of the game, his son Mark, part of the victorious Donegal team, ran to embrace him. Martin McHugh burst into tears as the full extent of what had happened hit him. The emotional moment, as Martin recalled the death of his father Jim the previous October and his mother Kathleen's Alzheimer's, was widely broadcast and became one of the "iconic images" of the victory.

In 2013, he called for change to the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and stated that the back door only helped stronger counties such as his own.

In 2014, McHugh described the Kerry forward, Colm Cooper as a "two-trick pony". Many in Kerry received this badly.

During television coverage of the 2021 Ulster Senior Football Championship game between Donegal and Derry, McHugh said some of the players on the pitch were not of inter-county standard. At a press event ahead of the 2022 National Football League (which marked Allianz's long-term involvement with that competition), McHugh was asked about those remarks. He said: "I just felt — and I watched him last night again (in the Sigerson Cup) and he played very well — that Jason McGee was a player we needed off the bench. I said that we had players to come off the bench… I was very annoyed at half-time, and I was worried and I felt we needed to get players, who were on the bench, on the field, and we needed to get them on quickly because I could see that game slipping away. I think there was a lot made about that. I suppose when you have the passion for your county, maybe you say things on live TV, and you have to say it as you see it".

Other activities McHugh owns Spirits and Liquor Limited.

He put himself forward for the role of Donegal's delegate to central council in 2009 but, though he was ahead after the first count, he was ultimately rejected. It was the first time McHugh had sought a position on the county board. He expressed a lack of interest in any other roles on the Donegal board as the role he was pursuing would have allowed him into Croke Park, where he hoped to influence the development of club football.

Personal life McHugh is a grandfather. He has two sons and a daughter.

Career statistics

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In May 2012, the Irish Independent'''s named McHugh in Donegal's "greatest team", spanning the previous 50 years. Silver Jubilee Football Team of the Ulster GAA Writers Association (UGAAWA) nomination: 2012 In May 2020, the Irish Independent named McHugh as one of the "dozens of brilliant players" who narrowly missed selection for its "Top 20 footballers in Ireland over the past 50 years".

Manager Cavan Ulster Senior Football Championship: 1997 National Football League Division 3: 1995

Sligo IT Sigerson Cup: 2004, 2005