Gerard Cavlan is an Irish former

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

er who played for the Tyrone county team. He was part of the team that won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship in 2003. He made his senior debut in 1993 against

Wexford Wexford () is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 N ...

, at the age of 17. Cavlan represented Ireland in the

2000 International Rules Series The 2000 International Rules Series was the seventh annual International Rules Series and the third time that a test series of international rules football has been played between Ireland and Australia since the series resumed in 1998. The ser ...

against Australia. His breakthrough year was in 1996 during Tyrone's march to the All-Ireland semi final, and he scored six points in that match. In 2006, shortly after Tyrone were knocked out of the All-Ireland championship early, Cavlan was one of several Tyrone players who took up the option to play for an American GAA club. In the 2007 Ulster Championship first round, Cavlan came on as a substitute, and scored an injury time free kick to win the game for Tyrone, against their neighbours,

Fermanagh Historically, Fermanagh ( ga, Fir Manach), as opposed to the modern County Fermanagh, was a kingdom of Gaelic Ireland, associated geographically with present-day County Fermanagh. ''Fir Manach'' originally referred to a distinct kin group of al ...

Outside football

Cavlan was embroiled in off-field controversy in April 2006, when the Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (USPCA) seized a dangerous dog from Cavlan's Dungannon home, suspected of being used for dogfighting. The dog (Cannon Ball) was found in a healthy state but with large amounts of scarring, Cavlan maintained that he did not own the dog, or condone dog fighting. On 23 April 2007 Cavlan changed his plea to guilty and was fined £650, banned for five years from owning a terrier-type dog and ordered to pay costs of £4,300. A BBC Spotlight investigation screened on 30 August 2007 claimed Cavlan was a "ringleader" in a major

dog fighting Dog fighting is a type of blood sport that turns game and fighting dogs against each other in a physical fight, generally to the death, for the purposes of gambling or entertainment to the spectators. In rural areas, fights are often staged i ...

operation. The report claimed that Cavlan was a senior member of The Bulldog Sanctuary Kennels, operating in Tyrone. A BBC undercover reporter infiltrated another operation called the Farmers Boys in Armagh, which had links to Cavlan. In the programme Cavlan was filmed stating he had a dozen or fifteen pit bulls, and stated of one dog "Sure he had him in the chest, and he shook him and he shook him for 25 minutes... if he hadn't got you killed in half an hour... he was in trouble, you know. A real hard mouthed dog." Cavlan was also filmed discussing plans to retrieve Cannon Ball from the British Army's Palace Barracks, where the dog was being held on behalf of the USPCA. Cavlan was later dropped from the Tyrone panel.

References

External links

Short fact file from 1995
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cavlan, Gerard 1976 births Living people Irish international rules football players Tyrone inter-county Gaelic footballers Winners of one All-Ireland medal (Gaelic football)