Peter Canavan

Peter Canavan

Canavan lifting the Sam Maguire Cup in 2003
Personal information
Irish name	Peadar Ó Ceannabháin
Sport	Gaelic football
Position	Forward
Born	(1971-04-09) 9 April 1971 (age 45) Ballygawley, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
Height	5 ft 09 in (1.75 m)
Nickname	Peter 'The Great', 'Wee Peter'
Occupation	Teacher
Club(s)
Years	Club
1990–2007	Errigal Ciarán GAC
Club titles
Tyrone titles	6
Ulster titles	2
Inter-county(ies)**
Years	County	Apps (scores)
1989–2005	Tyrone	49 (9–191 (218))
Inter-county titles
Ulster titles	5
All-Irelands	2
NFL	2
All Stars	6
**Inter County team apps and scores correct as of (22:03, 21 December 2006 (UTC)).

Peter Canavan (born 9 April 1971) is a former Gaelic footballer and manager.

He played inter-county football for Tyrone, and is one of the most decorated players in the game's history, winning two All-Ireland Senior Football Championship medals, six All Stars Awards (more than any other Ulster player, and joint third overall), four provincial titles, and two National Leagues and several under-age and club championship medals. He represented Ireland in the International Rules Series on several occasions from 1998 until 2000. He is considered one of the great players of the last twenty years by commentators such as John Haughey of the BBC, and in 2009, he was named in the Sunday Tribune's list of the 125 Most Influential People in GAA History.

His scoring record of 218 points is the second highest of all time in the Ulster Senior Football Championship. His early high scoring rate, when he would often be Tyrone's best performer – particularly in the 1995 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final when he scored eleven of Tyrone's twelve points—led to claims that Tyrone was a "one-man show," and that the team was too dependent on him, particularly in his early career.

Since retiring as a player he has managed the Fermanagh inter-county Gaelic football team (2011–2013).

Canavan is from Glencull, near Ballygawley, County Tyrone and was the tenth of eleven children. His older brother, Pascal, played with him on the Tyrone panel for most of the 1990s. He is married to Finola (sister of former Tyrone team-mate Ronan McGarrity), and has four children, Aine, Claire, Darragh and Ruairi, and has been a Physical Education teacher in Holy Trinity College, Cookstown, throughout most of his career (Gaelic games are amateur sports). While there, he taught Eoin Mulligan his point-taking technique, and the pair have been known in the media as 'master and student' ever since, particularly by television commentators.