Cavan reached 1947 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final after defeating Roscommon in the semi-final. The concluding game was played at the Polo Grounds in New York City, the only time the final was held outside of Ireland. Kerry scored two early goals, but Cavan settled and goals from Joe Stafford and Mick Higgins meant they led by a point at half-time. Peter Donohoe kicked eight points over the hour to seal a famous victory for Cavan on a scoreline of 2–11 to 2–7, to bring Sam Maguire to Cavan for a third time.[5]
Cavan followed this up with a one-point win over Mayo in 1948, to win back-to-back titles. The county reached its third successive final in 1949, but was denied a three-in-a-row by Meath, losing by four points.
Cavan responded to that defeat by overcoming Meath after a replay in 1952 to win the county's fifth, and most recent, All-Ireland SFC title. It remains Cavan's latest appearance in an All-Ireland SFC final.
1970–present
Donegal All-Ireland SFC winner Martin McHugh was appointed as senior manager ahead of the 1995 season. At this time, Cavan had not won a game in the Ulster SFC for the previous seven years.[6] Cavan won the 1997 Ulster SFC final, after beating Derry by a point. Stephen King was captain.[7] Cavan substitute Jason O'Reilly scored the game's only goal.[8]Martin McHugh was manager; he later described the aftermath as follows: "It was crazy, like something you would see out in Argentina. I was worried that someone was going to get killed under the bus, they'd gone mad".[7] Cavan supporters thronged Hill 16 for the All-Ireland SFC semi-final against Kerry, King acknowledging that — despite the early goal from Fintan Cahill — Kerry "deserved their win".[7] After the semi-final, McHugh stepped down as manager having served three years. He cited putting his family first as the reason for leaving.[9]
With Val Andrews as manager, Cavan once again reached the Ulster SFC final again in 2001.[10] A goal from Jason O'Reilly had Cavan leading at half time, but a strong finish from Tyrone meant they ran out winners on a 1-13 to 1-11 scoreline.[11]
Cavan's most notable achievement in the early part of the 21st-century was ending Seán Boylan's long spell as manager of Meath in 2005.[12][7] Less than a year after this success, Waterford defeated Cavan in the league to halt its push for promotion.[7]Cian Mackey was among several players who were "rested" for the game and not included among the substitutes.[7] The Waterford win was inspired by a line in the Cavan matchday programme that Cavan's defeat would be akin to the "sinking of the Titanic", with Waterford manager John Kiely using this to stir the away team into action.[7]
Mackey later said: "One game turned the whole thing on its head for years. We didn't really recover from that for years, from pushing so close to promotion".[7]
Manager Donal Keogan got the county promoted the following year but league restructuring landed Cavan in Division 2 instead.[7]Relegation to Division 3 quickly followed. Cavan lost to Antrim in the 2009 Ulster SFC.[7]
The county narrowly avoided relegation to Division 4 in 2012 following a loss by a scoreline of 4–6 to 0–12 to Antrim, surviving because already-relegated Tipperary defeated Offaly when an Offaly win would have sent Cavan down on the head-to-head result.[7][13][14]
Under the management of Mattie McGleenan, Cavan's defence was not strong.[15]
Former senior player Mickey Graham was appointed as manager ahead of the 2019 season.[16] Fellow Cavanman Dermot McCabe and Monaghan's Martin Corey joined him.[17] Cavan reached the 2019 Ulster SFC final in Graham's first season as manager, losing to Donegal. In 2020, Graham led Cavan to consecutive Ulster SFC finals for the first time since the 1960s.[18] Cavan won and, because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Gaelic games, went straight into the All-Ireland SFC semi-final, the county's first appearance at that stage since 1997.
Willie Carolan, from the Virginia club, played for the Cavan team that won the 1905 Ulster SFC. Paddy and Edwin Carolan were part of the 1952 All-Ireland SFC-winning team, which defeated Meath after a replay which was brought about by a controversial Edwin Carolan point. Pady Carolan became the last surviving member of the 1952 team, and thus the last surviving All-Ireland SFC winner from Cavan, when Brian O'Reilly died in November 2021. Piddy Carolan's son Ronan played for Cavan between 1986 and 1999, winning an Ulster SFC in 1997, thus giving three generations of the Carolan family Ulster SFC medals. Niall Carolan, grandson of Paddy and nephew of Ronan, was part of Cavan's 2022 Tailteann Cup Final squad.[21] Niall Carolan started that game.[22]
Records
Ronan Carolan is the team's top scorer in National Football League history, finishing his career with 19–387 (444) in that competition and behind only Mickey Kearins at his retirement (though since surpassed by David Tubridy who became the competition's top scorer in May 2021).[23]
Cavan has had only four sponsorship deals since the GAA first permitted sponsors on jerseys in 1991. There was no sponsorship on GAA jerseys until the second game of the Meath v Dublin four-in-a-row in 1991 so only a handful of teams had sponsorship in 1991. In 1992, Holybrook Construction sponsored Cavan's jerseys, although it was only for one game. For the 1993–94 seasons, Cavan Co-op Mart took over sponsorship. Kingspan has continuously sponsored Cavan since 1995.
Cavan has won the All-Ireland SFC final on five occasions — all five victories came between 1933 and 1952.
Meanwhile, the county has won the Ulster SFC on 40 occasions. All bar the 39th and 40th of these came in the 1960s or earlier. The most recent one came in 2020 after a gap of 23 years. The previous one came in 1997 when Cavan defeated Derry by a scoreline of 1–14 to 0–16. That was the county's first Ulster SFC title in 28 years.
^"Flashbacks: Dublin v Cavan". Dublin GAA. 1 December 2020. The Breffni Blues goal arrived just before the break when Martin Reilly flicked a delivery from Gearóid McKiernan to the net.
