Founded in 1924, the club have had teams break up several times in their history. They play football only, though — in the past — played hurling too. From 1967, the team played at the coastal venue Fintra Park, subsequently renamed McDevitt Park; that year Donegal and Mayo played a game to mark its opening. They contested the Donegal SFC decider seven times between 1988 and 1996, winning five of them. The first of the five was the defeat of local rivals Cill Chartha in the 1988 decider. It ended a 36-year wait for the Donegal SFC and was only the second time the club had won the competition. Of that team Manus Boyle, Barry Cunningham, John Cunningham, John Bán Gallagher, Barry McGowan and Conor White had won the 1987 All-Ireland Under-21 Football Championship the previous year, while Mark Boyle, Stephen Burke, Barry Cunningham Jnr and David Meehan had played for Donegal in the Ulster Minor Football Championship and also the Donegal under-21 football team. Boyle, Barry Cunningham, John Cunningham and McGowan would go on to win the 1992 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. In the midst of this successful run, the club reached the final of the 1991 Ulster Senior Club Football Championship. Denis Carberry was team captain that year. However, one third of the team were absent for the Ulster campaign due to employment in fishing in the North Atlantic: these were Carberry, Conor White, David Meehan, Rory McNelis and Mickey Campbell. They were the away side in both the quarter-final and semi-final, defeating Derry champions Dungiven in the former and Down champions Downpatrick in the latter. Ahead of the final in Omagh, John Bán Gallagher got injured. Carberry, Meehan and White were flown back to the mainland to compete in the game. However, the team lost to Castleblayney Faughs by a scoreline of 0–8 to 0–6. The team were thrown out of the 2002 Donegal Senior Football Championship at the semi-final stage after breaking the rules. They came from nowhere to reach the final of the 2010 Donegal Senior Football Championship, with Manus Boyle even coming out of retirement at the age of 44.
