Donegal GAA


The Donegal County Board or Donegal GAA is one of 32 County Boards of the Gaelic Athletic Association in Ireland, and is responsible for the administration of Gaelic games in County Donegal.
The County Board is responsible for preparing the Donegal county teams in the various Gaelic sporting codes; football, hurling, camogie and handball.
The football team last won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship in 2012 and the Ulster Senior Football Championship in 2019. Donegal players comprised most of the 2012 All Stars Team of the Year, and the three nominations for the All Stars Footballer of the Year, ultimately won by Karl Lacey. In addition, having been invited to assist the Celtic soccer team in Scotland, Donegal manager Jim McGuinness became the first Gaelic football inter-county manager to have been offered a role at a professional sports team abroad. McGuinness's services have also been sought by Premier League soccer teams.

Governance

Charlie O'Donnell resigned as County Secretary for personal reasons 15 months into a seven-year contract in December 2009.
Naul McCole was County Chairman in 1992 and was also a selector under Brian McEniff when Donegal won the 1992 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final.
Pat Conaghan was County Chairman in 1997.
Brian McEniff was County Chairman in late 2002 when, unable to find a manager for the senior football team, he did it himself.
P. J. McGowan completed five years as County Chairman in December 2012. Sean Dunnion succeeded McGowan.

Colours and crest

Donegal's county teams have played since their foundation in green and gold kits, which are also the colours of the board's logo and of the county crest because they recall the gold of the sandy beaches of the county and the green of the well known Hills of Donegal. Despite the colours have been always the same during the years, their disposal has been very different for much of the team's history. The classic Donegal kit was indeed composed by a green shirt with a golden hoop, white shorts and green and yellow socks. In 1966 the board opted for golden shirts but they turned green after only a short period, in the 1980s also often with green shorts. In 1992, when the football team reached the All-Ireland semifinal against Mayo, they had to use a change kit which was a yellow shirt with green sleeves and green shorts. Due to the unexpected victory against the favourite Connacht side, the football team decided to retain this colour combination for the final against Dublin. Donegal won their first All-Ireland title and since then the county teams have favoured a yellow/gold shirt and green shorts.
Usually Donegal wore as change kit yellow shirts or black and yellow ones. Since they use yellow as primary colour, change kits have been green or white.

Kit evolution

Football

Clubs

The county's most successful football club is Gaoth Dobhair. Gaoth Dobhair have won the Donegal Senior Football Championship on fifteen occasions, and also won the Ulster Senior Club Football Championship in 2018.
There are currently 40 clubs under the auspices of the Donegal County Board.
See Donegal Intermediate Football Championship and Donegal Junior Football Championship

County team

The county team came to the fore of Ulster football in the 1970s, winning their first Ulster Senior Football Championship in 1972. The win coincided with the county's first All Star—in the form of Brian McEniff—in the second year of the award's existence. A second provincial title followed for Donegal in 1974.
The county team won won a third provincial title in 1983. Fourth and fifth titles followed in 1990 and 1992. They team later qualified for the 1992 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final, where they defeated heavy favourites Dublin.
Donegal last won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship in 2012. They last won the Ulster Senior Football Championship in 2019.

Hurling

Clubs

County team

Though hurling clubs are present in Donegal, there has been limited success for Donegal's hurlers at inter-county level. Donegal have three senior and four junior Ulster hurling titles, the last senior win coming in 1932.
Donegal has a residue of pre-GAA hurling. The Burt Hibernians brought Donegal the 1906 Ulster Senior Hurling Championship, defeating Antrim by 25 points to one. Burt later played in Derry. In 1923 Donegal fielded a team of three natives augmented with Gardaí and customs officers from hurling counties to win their second Ulster Senior Hurling Championship. When they lined out for the semi-final, wearing blue jerseys against Limerick on a cold, miserable day in Croke Park, numbers were worn by the players for the first time to help the spectators to distinguish them. They trailed 5–4 to nil at half-time and lost 7–4 to 0–1.
Donegal were National Hurling League Division Three champions in 2001.
Donegal currently compete in Division 2B of the NHL and in the Christy Ring Cup. They reached the final of the 2006 Nicky Rackard Cup, only to be defeated by Derry. They reached the final of the 2009 Lory Meagher Cup, only to be defeated by Tyrone. They won the 2011 Lory Meagher Cup, and then the 2013 Nicky Rackard Cup, their first, beating Roscommon in the final by four points. These games were all played at Croke Park.
Management
Donegal have the following achievements in hurling.
All Stars
;Nicky Rackard Cup All Star Awards
;Lory Meagher Cup All Star Awards
Donegal competed in the Ulster Senior Championship from the 1930s, hosting Antrim in Letterkenny in 1945. They succeeded in fielding a league team in the 1980s, drawing on the groundwork at Loreto, Letterkenny which fielded successful colleges teams. The Pan Celtic games of 2006 rejuvenated camogie in Donegal and the county returned to competition in the Ulster Junior Championship in 2008.
Under Camogie's National Development Plan 2010–2015, "Our Game, Our Passion", it was announced that Donegal, Kerry, Mayo and Monaghan were to receive a total of 14 new clubs by 2015.