Martin Furlong (born 14 September 1946 in

Tullamore Tullamore (; ) is the county town of County Offaly in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is on the Grand Canal (Ireland), Grand Canal, in the middle of the county, and is the fourth most populous town in the Midland Region, Ireland, Midlands Reg ...

County Offaly County Offaly (; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is named after the Ancient Ireland, ancient Kingdom of Uí ...

) is an

Irish Irish commonly refers to: * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the island and the sovereign state ***Erse (disambiguatio ...

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 his local club

and was the first-choice

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

at senior level on the Offaly county team from 1966 until 1985. Furlong is the only Offaly player to have won three All-Ireland SFC medals in 1971, 1972 and 1982. He also won an

All-Ireland Minor Football Championship The Electric Ireland All-Ireland Minor Football Championship is the premier under-17 "knockout" competition in Gaelic football played in Ireland. 2017 was the final year of the minor under 18 football championship as it was replaced by an under ...

in 1964. He won the

Texaco Footballer of the Year The Texaco Footballer of the Year was a Gaelic football award, created in 1958, that honoured the achievements of a footballer of outstanding excellence. The award was part of the Texaco Sportstars Awards, in which Irish sportspeople from all fi ...

in 1982 after Offaly's All-Ireland SFC win. In 1989 Martin moved from Clonminch, Tullamore to America following the request of him older brother Tom, to assist him in running his bar. Martin continues to live in New York, two of his sons live in America, one son and his only daughter returned to Ireland. He was interviewed from his American base for the documentary ''

Players of the Faithful ''Players of the Faithful'' is a documentary on Offaly's bid to stop Kerry becoming the first team to win five consecutive All-Ireland Senior Football Championships in 1982. Loosehorse were responsible for putting it together; it followed on f ...

''. In May 2020, the ''

Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray backgrou ...

'' named Furlong as one of the "dozens of brilliant players" who narrowly missed selection for its "Top 20 footballers in Ireland over the past 50 years".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Furlong, Martin 1946 births Living people All Stars Awards winners (football) Gaelic football goalkeepers Leinster inter-provincial Gaelic footballers Offaly inter-county Gaelic footballers Tullamore Gaelic footballers Winners of three All-Ireland medals (Gaelic football)