The key areas where Cork must clean up house before facing Limerick again
A second pop at Limerick signals a chance at redemption. It's an opportunity to remind the wider hurling community that they are still All-Ireland finalists and that their credentials for 2025 have not withered away. A chance to wipe out the damage of that 16-point defeat two weeks ago.
Manager Pat Ryan alluded to it when he spoke to the media after the Waterford game, as he emphasised the importance of 'representing the jersey' and carrying the Cork emblem with distinction.
In order to do that against Limerick, they must tidy up a few areas.
****
Address injury concerns
Cork have some important injury concerns to sort through before the ball is thrown in on 7 June.
They were without Rob Downey, Niall O'Leary and Declan Dalton for the Waterford game, and they may also be forced to put defender Ger Millerick on the treatment table too. He suffered a suspected dislocated finger against Waterford which requires a scan.
As well as being an experienced defender, Millerick also created the move which resulted in Patrick Horgan's goal. He delivered a brilliant pass over his shoulder which broke kindly for Hayes to pop the ball out to Horgan for the final swing. Immediately after that, Millerick carried the ball down the wing before laying off to Hayes for a point.
Advertisement
Cork have a second goal and it's Patrick Horgan who drives it into the net to extend the lead over Waterford
📺 Watch on @rte2 & @rteplayer
📻 Sunday Sport @rteradio1
Live blog 👇https://t.co/u3usmhW9S6 pic.twitter.com/vsuaiZR6PM — The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) May 25, 2025
Dalton had featured in all three of Cork's Munster games, and started against Tipperary (1-6) and Limerick before limping off in the first half. Shane Barrett, Darragh Fitzgibbon and Séamus Harnedy combined for eight points against Waterford, but Dalton would be a huge loss to the half-forward line if he is unfit to play.
Pat Ryan was already down a corner-back before Millerick's withdrawal against Waterford, and he will need a strong batch of defenders to marshal Aaron Gillane, Shane O'Brien and David Reidy. That trio combined for 2-9 in their last meeting, with Gillane hitting 2-7. Damien Cahalane replaced Millerick against Waterford and he may be needed again for Cork's second trip to the Gaelic Grounds.
Rob Downey started against Limerick but was taken off at half-time. Ryan has since admitted that they 'probably shouldn't have played Rob' in that game, but were reluctant to omit him from selection as he is their captain. Cormac O'Brien, who replaced Downey in the Limerick game, made his first championship start against Waterford and scored a point before coming off in the final moments.
Improve Accuracy
Cork were clinical enough to get the better of Waterford but were wasteful in front of goal too. They had 17 wides before close of business in Páirc Uí Chaoimh while also dropping three efforts into Billy Nolan's hand. That return in front of goal will not go unpunished against a Limerick side who have a scoring a difference of 17 which is by far the highest in the Munster championship table.
Against Waterford, some of Cork's more reliable shooters were off target at times, including Darragh Fitzgibbon and Séamus Harnedy who both missed chances in the opening 10 minutes as Waterford built up a 0-4 0-1 lead. The wind factor, however, was significant. And even when they were playing against it in the first half, they still held a 0-13 0-12 lead at half-time.
Cork scored two goals but could have had more. Shortly after Hayes tapped the ball in, Shane Barrett launched a shot that fizzed past the Waterford goal from roughly the same position. Some of the other wides that followed their second goal were scores that could have killed off any chance at a late Waterford fightback.
In the first half against Limerick, Horgan missed a crucial goal chance when Cork were trailing 1-10 to 0-5 after another one of those pop passes from Hayes. His effort was batted back into play by Nickie Quaid, and a counter offensive ended with Gearóid Hegarty splitting the posts. What should have been a five-point game ended up being a nine-point gap.
If Cork don't rinse out that inefficiency, Limerick will crush them at the other end.
Win the midfield battle
Red circles will go around the names Cian Lynch, Adam English, Will O'Donoghue and Kyle Hayes, particularly if Cork are intent on bringing their half-back line so far forward again. Their structure left a lot of space open against Limerick, which Tom Morrissey exploited to score five points with ease.
English scored 1-2 in that game and has 2-8 in total from the round-robin, while Lynch has five points so far. The pair linked up for English's first-half goal against Cork and their attacking instincts are assisted by O'Donoghue's ability to sit back and hold the middle.
Adam English with a 2⃣nd Goal for @LimerickCLG in a dominant 1st Half against @OfficialCorkGAA in the @MunsterGAA Hurling Championship 🏆 #LIMVCOR pic.twitter.com/AZmLvQ9Glc — The GAA (@officialgaa) May 18, 2025
Hayes, Lynch and English all played vital roles in creating Limerick's second goal against Cork. It came from a Cork puckout, as Hayes reached in with his stick and flicked the ball forward to Lynch. He cut back into the middle, and flicked the ball beautifully into the path of English who was running through into open space before sniping the ball into the corner.
Lynch's point which came directly after English's goal came from another Hayes intervention, who has been lording the centre-back position throughout the championship.
Protect lead
Against both Clare and Waterford, Cork built up leads which they let slip. The Rebels were 12 points up at half-time against the Banner and needed a late Declan Dalton free to rescue a draw. Shane Barrett's red card in the 57th minute can't be discounted when reviewing that result as well as the first-round adrenaline which helped bring Clare back into the contest. But the concession of three goals in the second half cannot be ignored either.
Cork went eight points clear after Horgan provided their second goal against Waterford, but were pulled back to three.
They eventually won by six but there were other slips that they were fortunate not to pay a high price for. Mark Coleman, who had an otherwise solid day out, almost conceded an own goal while trying to catch a long free in. The sliotar popped out of his hand and only the width of the crossbar spared him at a time when Cork were 2-18 to 0-16 ahead.
Even the goal that Waterford did score was arguably preventable. Goalkeeper Patrick Collins looked disappointed after Stephen Bennett's shot bounced past him into the net. Their seven-point lead was suddenly down to four. Bennett broke through again in the next play only to be denied by the butt of the post. Jamie Barron also had an attempt at goal which he missed.
Should they get in front against Limerick, they will need a tighter defensive shape to stay ahead.
Related Reads
5 Talking points as hurling round-robins draw to a close
'Fellas would be building you up, hoping you'd get a kick in the ass' - Ryan on Cork hype
'Every football team is still in Championship' - Queally calls for change to hurling structure
Reduce Limerick's goal-count
This relates to the point above. Limerick smashed three goals past Cork in the previous meeting and have raised five green flags in all during this round-robin series. But it's the timing of Limerick's goals against Cork that requires examination, with the first one coming in just the second minute.
A Cian Lynch delivery found Aaron Gillane in the corner. His marker Niall O'Leary was too far off in the race for possession and slipped as Gillane cut a path along the inside. Ciarán Joyce tried to race across and cut out the danger, but was side-stepped too easily.
Aaron Gillane produces this majestic goal for Limerick as they make a blistering start
📺 https://t.co/AKAre5FHdN
📻 https://t.co/fTWa53I9yS
🖥️ https://t.co/DY08xADH3F #SundayGame pic.twitter.com/G2iY7tmWqc — The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) May 18, 2025
The third goal just after the hour mark was arguably the most cruel blow. Horgan's penalty moments earlier gave Cork a lifeline as they trailed 2-23 to 1-16. But a dangerous ball landed on top of Gillane and Eoin Downey at the edge of the square. Downey was ruled to be fouling and Gillane converted the penalty to quench the Cork rebellion.
There were other nervy moments when the Cork backs looked brittle. Shane O'Brien created a goal chance for Tom Morrissey which was blocked on the line by Coleman while Barry Nash also broke through the full-back line only to be snuffed out before he could strike.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Daily Mirror
9 minutes ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Martin McHugh: All-Ireland final nerves are way worse as a dad than as a player
PART ONE: IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER Once Donegal's 1992 All-Ireland semi-final ended, the players came back home and the fans came back to Earth. Suddenly everyday concerns mixed with an even bigger worry: where would they source a ticket? For Jim and Kathleen McHugh, they had an answer to that second problem but not the first. Read more: Kerry's summer sensation: 'He's the biggest competitor I ever came across' Read more: 'I did see a job for Wexford going…', but 1994 World Cup star isn't ready to end his India adventure just yet With two sons on the Donegal team, they had options: Upper Stand or Lower? Hogan or Cusack? But going to Croke Park left another issue unsolved. Who would milk the cows on their farm? It's unlikely if any of Dublin's players were troubled by this kind of issue but if you are from a rural background, you'd understand the scale of the predicament. Ordinarily, a neighbour would help out. Except this time just about everyone in Kilcar wanted to migrate to Dublin for the day. 'The GAA has been going since 1884,' says Martin McHugh, Donegal's talisman on that All-Ireland winning side. 'And here we were, 108 years later, reaching our first All-Ireland. To say it was a big deal is an understatement. It was huge.' All the more so because no one gave them a chance. 'A funny thing happened on the day of our All-Ireland semi-final,' McHugh says. 'Our performance was so bad that the rumour was the Dublin players left before the final whistle. 'Who knows if that is true or not but it fed into the narrative that they were raging hot favourites and we were just there to make up the numbers.' The reality was different. A decade earlier, Donegal had won an Under 21 All-Ireland with seven graduates who'd help the county win just their third Ulster championship a year later. Then in 1987 another crop came along to collect Donegal's second Under 21 All-Ireland. 'In '92, we'd a good balance between young and old. In hindsight, we actually should have won more than we did,' says McHugh, 'because we were better than we thought. 'When we asked Dublin questions, they didn't have answers.' If there was any doubt in his head about how big a deal winning that first All-Ireland was, all Martin McHugh had to do was look at the expression on his parents' faces. Jim and Kathleen had met in London after emigrating in the 1950s. Work then took them to Leicester until the death of an uncle led to Jim getting the call to come home and take care of the farm. McHugh says: 'You know growing up, it was tough. But it was tough for everyone. Everybody around us had little but we all had enough, that kind of way. 'My parents wouldn't have gone to too many of our matches (for Donegal). They wouldn't have had the time because there was always stuff to get done on the farm. So getting down to Dublin for the final, that was a big deal.' So was winning. He got to see his parents an hour after the final whistle. Not many words were said because that generation didn't verbalise their feelings the way people are more at ease at doing so now. And yet they didn't need to. 'You just know,' McHugh says. 'Their faces, ah jeepers, the pride in them. You could see it meant the world to them. Two boys on the side. Daddy had won a County title with Killybegs years and years ago (in 1952). He loved his football and bringing the cup home to Kilcar was unforgettable. 'I'll never forget old people coming up to us. 'Thank you,' they'd say. 'We never thought we'd live to see this day… a Kilcar man in an All-Ireland.' They were the first McHughs to do so. But not the last. Donegal's Ryan McHugh credits Donegal's revival to Michael Murphy and Jim McGuinness' return. (Image: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne) PART TWO: … AND OF THE SON Martin McHugh was in the press box of the Hogan Stand. Martin McHugh was also in hell. His son, Mark, was on the Donegal team contesting the 2012 All-Ireland final. And it brought things back. 'As a player, I was grand in terms of the nerves,' he says. 'But as a dad, it was way worse. 'You think about it from a totally different perspective. All you really want is that the game ends without any one player making a costly mistake. 'Looking back, Mark had a very good game that day. 'But I won't pretend it isn't tough. I had to take a couple of valium that day to calm myself.' Watching your son in an All-Ireland stirred many memories. The car journeys to training; the anxiety watching them grow through challenges and setbacks; the day he was born; the day he was brought home; the day you realised he loved the game as much as you did. Then there was the fear. What if the team loses because of an error? What if Mark makes that mistake? But mixed with the fear is the pride in seeing your child representing your county in your sport's biggest day. 'You wouldn't change it for the world,' says Martin. But by 2014 there would be change. Mark may not have started that day but Ryan, his younger brother, did - continuing the McHugh lineage. PART THREE: JIMMY'S WINNING MATCHES Two names are synonymous with Donegal's All-Ireland final history: McHugh and McGuinness. The first has supplied five different members of the one family through the county's four final appearances: Martin, James (1992), Mark (2012), Ryan (2014 and 2025) and Eoin (2025). Yet even their contribution has been trumped by one man, Donegal's manager, Jim McGuinness. 'Jim always had a presence, even when he was younger. When he walked into a room, you could sense that,' says Martin McHugh of a person he has seen grow from young tyro on the 1992 panel to messianic leader. 'He is an unbelievable speaker, the sort of person you would walk through a brick wall for. 'We have so much to be thankful for because after 1992 we all thought we would only win one All-Ireland in our lifetimes. 'When he took over the team in 2011, we were nowhere. Then a year later we won an All-Ireland. He has since taken us to our third and fourth finals. When you analyse it, it is a serious achievement, Donegal making four All-Irelands in history, Jim managing us to three of those. 'When I was growing up, it was Dublin and Kerry who were always appearing in finals. Now our name is in the mix. Jeepers, that makes me proud.' Donegal manager Jim McGuinness after the 2014 final PART FOUR: DONEGAL There is no train service to Donegal. No motorway either. The airport is over an hour away from the southern edge of the county where the McHughs live. Emigration was a trauma in the 1950s, The Troubles an even greater wound twenty years later. 'We were deemed to be part of it,' McHugh reckons. 'The old story was that for every ten American tourists who landed into Dublin Airport, nine went south, and the tenth who went north only went there to visit family. 'So, we never received the same amount of tourist trade as other counties on the western seaboard. As a place, Donegal was not commercialised and we are the better for it in many respects. 'You see, we are very proud of our county. We are a likeable sort; we enjoy the craic and have produced some unbelievable people over the years' Packie Bonner, Seamus Coleman, Shay Given. "Daniel O'Donnell and Paul McGinley - whose father is a Donegalman - are two of our biggest ambassadors. 'Everybody rows in behind everybody here. Like, we don't reach too many All-Ireland finals. So it is great for football in the county that we are back in one. For me, it means an awful lot, not just because I have a son on the side but as a football man, as a Donegal man, it's just magical.' He's a grandfather now. Noah, Mark's son, is old enough to understand the value of haggling for a ticket. 'Grandad, I want to see David Clifford play.' McHugh laughed at that one and then he paused to think. His father, a county medal winner; his father in law, Padin O'Donnell, an understated but outstanding full back. "When I started playing, he (his father in law) couldn't watch the matches because of nerves. He'd go out the back of the main stand for a smoke.' Now the circle of life has turned. He is the anxious one now, watching over his boy, Ryan, hoping he joins Mark, James and himself as an All-Ireland winner. 'If you win it, it's unbelievable and if you lose, you have to be there for them, to get in behind them and support them because the few days after will be tough.' And yet when you remind him that tomorrow another McHugh will be on the starting team for Donegal in an All-Ireland final with his club name, Kilcar, in brackets next to that name in the match programme, you can sense what it means. Just like in 1992, when he saw Jim and Kathleen, there are no words. But his face tells you precisely what this means. Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email .
The 42
30 minutes ago
- The 42
'When the injury happened, well I'm a bit stubborn and I said I was not finishing like that'
THE LAST TIME Vikki Falconer lined up to face Cork in the knockout stages of the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland senior camogie championship, she had the All-Star already in the bag and was one of the leading contenders to be Player of the Year. What's more, like teammate Niamh Rockett, she was a little over an hour away from what most believe would be a unique treble of winning senior, intermediate and premier junior All-Irelands. Waterford's specialist marker won the first battle with Cork captain Amy O'Connor but crumpled to the turf after just three minutes when attempting a change of direction. That was that. O'Connor went on to score 3-7 from 10 shots, 3-2 from play, and the Rebels were 2023 All-Ireland champions. That afternoon left its mark obviously on Falconer, the ACL torn and a far from straightforward return ahead. The one-sided nature of the game left its mark on Waterford too. They have looked better this summer and the return of the Tramore defender is surely a factor, along with the gradual healing of the detritus of scar tissue scattered everywhere in the wake of that chastening afternoon at Croke Park. To that end, returning to HQ for this year's quarter-final felt like a bit of a full circle moment and again, Falconer excelled as the Déise recovered from a sticky start to prevail against Clare by 10 points. It took Rockett contributing 1-11 to deny the only other survivor from Waterford's one-point defeat of Down in the 2011 All-Ireland premier junior championship the POTM gong. Crossing swords with Cork in today's Glen Dimplex All-Ireland senior semi-final at UPMC Nowlan Park [5pm, live on RTÉ 2 as part of a double-header with the Galway v Tipperary semi-final at 3pm] is another step along the journey. In Falconer's eyes however, it is not so much about the opposition as much as knowing she is back in the big time, another All-Ireland final spot up for grabs. She is close to her optimum again and enjoying her camogie, having decided very quickly that her career could not end by being carted off a pitch. She has always been an independent thinker, looking on herself in the round rather than just in the context of her sporting pursuits. And being here still, having turned 31 earlier this year, almost half a lifetime since first being called into the Waterford senior panel, is probably a testament to her awareness of striking a balance in her life, on not neglecting her mental health in the pursuit of physical peak. Thus, she missed a couple of years' camogie studying in Scotland after the All-Ireland intermediate success of 2015. And then last October, after the frustration of a quad injury that halted her comeback, she went to Australia with her boyfriend, missing the Very League in the process. Advertisement No question, the primary school teacher at Our Lady of Mercy in Waterford city, is a complete package rather than a one-dimensional figure. 'I know I'm very lucky to be back,' says Falconer, on her first day of official holidays after the conclusion of a school camp. 'I know that's not a lot of players can do that. I'm grateful towards management and the girls to be left back into the panel, but I suppose after the cruciate and everything, I felt like I just need a bit of a break. It was something I've always wanted to do. 'It gave me the opportunity to work on myself as well. It gave me that break from just the usual training, I was able to go to the gym and I trained with a club (Central Coast) over there as well. So it was really good, and I'm happy to be back. And as I said, I am grateful that was allowed back in the panel.' Falconer leaves the field during the 2023 All-Ireland final. Bryan Keane / INPHO Bryan Keane / INPHO / INPHO We can be fairly confident that Mick Boland and his management team, and the players, did not require any papal conclave-type powwow to come up to come to a consensus in that regard. After the game against Clare, Boland was effusive but it is what teammates say invariably reveals most. 'Vikki is a superstar, I can tell you,' said Orla Hickey. 'I was on the pitch with her the last day in Croke Park. It's brilliant to see someone of her calibre get back playing. She's a superstar… She is a real inspiration.' Falconer landed back in Ireland on a Friday. On Saturday, she was doing a ball session. There was unfinished business to attend to. 'To be honest, I tried not to think about it,' she says of the build-up to the Croke Park return. 'There were a few comments during the week but for me, I was just excited. In the All-Ireland final, when I did my knee, I was a bit later on in my career as well so I did have those thoughts before: the last time I played in Croke Park, is that going to be the (last) game? And I didn't want that to be the case. 'Coming off, I was really happy, but I didn't really think about it during the week. But looking back, I'm just delighted that I was back up there. Every player, every GAA player, every camogie, ladies football player, you want to be playing in Corke Park. 'At my age, you always do wonder, when would be your last year? And 2023, bar in the finish, obviously, was a good year. And when the injury happened, well I'm a bit stubborn and I said I was not finishing like that. 'Even last year, when I did get back, I got injured again. There was a big mix of frustrations so I was eager to get back this year too.' She doesn't know if the 'pretty bad tear' of the quad is related to the graft taken from that area to help repair the ACL. It isn't something that interests her really, because it doesn't matter now. But it was very hard to take, worse than the cruciate, because having played against Antrim in the group stages, she was primed to start against Galway in last year's All-Ireland quarter-final. 'Mentally, I think when the cruciate happened, I said, 'We're gonna get through this with rehab.' I actually found tearing my quad really hard mentally, because all that work you put in… I was very naive in the fact that, other things can happen too. Once my knee was back in order, I was like, 'Here we go, we're back,' but I forgot about the rest of my body. So I found that hard to take. Mentally I found that really hard. 'But these things happen, you come back stronger.' She agrees that Waterford started slowly against Clare and that it took her 'three or four balls' to get to grips with how the dangerous Róisín Begley was playing. Experience was probably the key factor, she reckons, individually and collectively, predicting that there is more to come from a young Banner outfit. All the Falconer trademarks were on show after that tricky opening period. The limpet-like marking. The sure first touch. That strength over the sliotar, which belies a short stature. The accurate, sensible distribution. In action against Clare's Roisin Begley earlier this month. Tom O'Hanlon / INPHO Tom O'Hanlon / INPHO / INPHO With so much of the conversation centred on making it back, there is a danger in framing this as a good way to go out, in top form again, playing in big games, giving the game's best forwards a torrid time. But that also makes it hard to leave, especially with Waterford boasting their deepest ever squad, now firmly ensconced in the top four of camogie, at least. 'It's a huge part of your life, so I think you want to play for as long as you can. 'I played with amazing players over the years, like Jennie Simpson, Karen Kelly, Shona Curran, Trish Jackman. So many amazing players over the years. But I think what we've been working on over the last few years, it's really starting to knit together. We've a really good mix of youth and experienced players as well. I think the game we have, we have some really quick players, fast players, and the game plan we're working with is really coming together. It's a really special team. 'It's a really good atmosphere. And at the moment, everyone is just getting on really well, and it's a nice place to be. And when you're coming back into a group like this, it makes it a lot easier. I do feel there's something special in the team.' They will need to show it today against the champions. With Falconer in situ, expect them to do just that. *****
The 42
30 minutes ago
- The 42
An isolated, distinct land that carries the football tight to its heart: Failte go Tír Chonaill
THERE IS CHANCE, a good chance at that, that in around 20 years, perhaps when the management career of Michael Murphy is winding down, that the history of Donegal football could be told through the stories of three figures: Brian McEniff, Jim McGuinness and Michael Murphy. From the birth of McEniff, Donegal were only getting going. He lit the flame that the other two have carried. They have had almost no success of note without those three figures. Geography, politics, culture all play a role, but the county has always been fragmented. To achieve requires a lot to be straightened out. When it is, though, they can unite into an irresistible force . . . ***** Anyone looking to escape the build-up to Donegal being in an All-Ireland final, could have picked worse places to take a quick staycation last week than the Isle of Doagh, on Donegal's Inishown Peninsula. By our own counting, we tallied up more flags for the hurlers of Cork and Tipperary than in support of Donegal on the road from Ballyliffin to Carndonough. In a county that is a place all of itself, there are fragments even within that system that have their own peculiarities. The Inishown peninsula favours soccer. The view of Five Finger Strand. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo In a Moville household during the week, I heard the children refer to soccer as 'football', and the native sport as 'Gaelic.' Naturally, they have requested six tickets for Sunday from their local club. The old tourism board slogan of 'Up here, it's different' contains multiple truths for Donegal. The very formation of the county system wasn't a natural geographic fit and three distinct Donegal cultures emerged. The east of the county unquestionably held more in common with the Protestant character of east Ulster. It was thriving and industrious, hiring many from the impoverished other parts of the county while Scottish settlers created a society with its own schools, newspapers, churches, marriage patterns and class structures. That left the south of the county and the extremely isolated north west. Utterly underdeveloped industrially, with areas such as The Rosses still lacking in proper road structures even up to a century ago. And in between the three regions was barren wasteland, high up and low down. Shouldered by the mountains on one side and hemmed in by the waves on the other, the locals created their own enterprises and entertainment. By the middle of the 1800s, north Donegal and particularly around the Inishowen Peninsula, with Urris as the epicentre, was a Poitín making industry, creating thousands of gallons that was exported to Belfast, Dublin and even Scotland. The lack of a permanent police presence in Inishown helped, but the locals were a shrewd bunch. They would station their distilleries in a sheugh between their land and a neighbours. In the event of discovery, they would successfully argue that it wasn't on their land, but on disputed territory. Incredibly, it worked. But the addictive nature of the alcohol was responsible for families being torn apart. Nobody wanted to incur the wrath of Judge Louis Joseph Walsh. In a previous life he was a contemporary of James Joyce and a playwright as well as a radical Republican who stood for election. But when he was appointed as the very first district court judge by Dáil, he took a dim view of Poitín and his policy was to jail the mother of the family caught transgressing. And any house would fall apart without the presence of the Irish mammy. Previously, in 1814 they brought in a system of townland fining. If the argument over disputed territory was used, a fine would be placed upon the entire townland. When the bills were inevitably unpaid, the army would move in and round up and impound the livestock of the area. This would cause huge poverty, cut off their means of paying tribute to landlords, and result in eventual eviction. All in, the existence of many was bleak. Diversion and sport was practically impossible. The Famine became a decades-long event in Donegal. The further failure of the potato crop in the late 1870s left those along the southern end of the county around Kilcar, Glencolumbkille and Killybegs barely able to make ends meet. Jonathan Bardon's 'A history of Ulster' held that, 'Living conditions in Gweedore were poor, with small homes built from turf; most had only a hole in the roof as a chimney and a low entrance acting as a doorway. Many had no windows and little space for habitation . . . Gweedore has a sad notoriety. Poverty and privation have been the portion of its peasantry.' During the Great Famine, occurrences of excess deaths in Donegal were significantly lower than other regions. Between 1846 and 1851 it was 10.7 per thousand, whereas a county such as Cavan, for example, had a 42.7 rate. A deserted famine house in Bloody Foreland, Gaoth Dobhair. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo What saved the worst excesses of suffering in the county was the established pattern of seasonal migration and emigration. With one of the lowest rates of literacy among the lower classes, parents were less inclined to encourage children into education, but to prepare them for the hiring fairs in Strabane and Letterkenny held twice a year, that could take their children away to labour for periods of six-months solid. Quite often, the venue was Scotland for the potato harvest, or 'Tattie hoking' as it was known. Ordnance Survey reports are typically unsympathetic to the plight of the natives – see Brian Friel's masterpiece, 'Translations' and the Captain Lancey character for further evidence. But in a statistical report taken by a real-life Lieutenant W. Lancey in May 1834 he cruelly noted about the public's lack of recreation around Downings, 'They are, like the rest of the country, not addicted to public sports. They appear either to have lost or never possessed a taste for feats of activity or manly strength, and all their leisure time is taken up in moping over misfortunes, real or supposed.' Advertisement Historically, there are many examples of two different types of hurling in Donegal. The earliest reference can be found a few miles outside Carndonough in the ruins of a 17th century planter's church ruin at Clonca, where a craved slab features a sword and a stick alongside a ball. By the 1800s Camán, also widely known as 'commons', was played on a restricted field with the ball – a wooden object known as a 'nagg' propelled along the ground. The other type was a cross-country affair, focussing more on ball-carrying and played across entire townlands. Beaches were suitable venues for games that were recorded in Gortahork and Magheraroarty. In the south of the county, once the final harvest of the year was cut in August, it would produce a frenzy of activity on the level fields. After the establishment of the GAA in 1884, Donegal started slow. Several clubs were formed in the east of the county, Letterkenny the furthest inland. With no county board to organise and sanction games, they depended on the Derry county board for sporadic games. Donegal clubs also were somewhat commitment-phobic, with an example of the Green Volunteers not fielding against The Joys, but later playing a soccer match against Derry club, Ivy. The historic connection to Scotland, along with the origins of Glasgow Celtic, goes a long way to explain the deep roots that soccer has in the county. When it came to Gaelic Games, the seeds fell on fallow ground for decades. That's not to say that sport had no presence in the county. The Protestant influence in east Donegal brought activity in hockey, cricket and rugby. Regattas would be contested by teams of fishermen on the Foyle and Lough Swilly. After the Irish Republican Brotherhood seized control of the GAA at a convention in Thurles Courthouse in 1887, the clergy in Derry began encouraging the working classes to play association football instead. The locals obeyed. The early hankering for hurling helped Donegal who, it might surprise to hear, have three Ulster senior hurling championship titles from 1906, 1923 and 1932. They reached the second final in 1904 to be beaten by Antrim. The same outcome occurred in 1905 though it is left unclear if that game was actually played, the title nonetheless going to Antrim. The 1906 championship reached its finale on 14 July, 1907, when Donegal beat Antrim on a recorded scoreline of 5-21 to 0-1 in Burt, a place that has deep hurling roots. Essentially though, Donegal took their own sweet time. The Prairie Fire that torched across the country in the spread of Gaelic Games was snuffed out on the bogs of Donegal. There were many factors. The lack of rail transport. The lack of anything approaching modern roads. The distances involved in organising GAA activities at board level, when the majority of meetings were held in Limerick Junction in Tipperary. It wasn't a particularly nationalist county, either. The level of Donegal involvement in the 1916 Easter Rising was minimal, if any. The Irish Republican Brotherhood tried to organise in the county and Ernest Blythe spent some time trying to rise numbers for the Irish Volunteers, but could only recruit 20 men. When the GAA's Central Council called for mass participation in Gaelic Games on 4 August 1918 in what would become known as 'Gaelic Sunday', almost 100,000 taking part in an act of civil disobedience with the RIC seeking permits for games, there was no record of activity in Donegal. Almost a year later, Ulster GAA held its convention in Derry on 16 March. Secretary Eoin O'Duffy was a huge figure in the War of Independence who led several lives. He would later become the first Garda Commissioner before raising an army to go and fight in the Spanish Civil War on the fascist side of General Franco. But Donegal have him to thank for their GAA culture as he personally formed a new county board, their first meeting being held in Strabane, Co Tyrone on 3 April 1919. This time, it stuck. The board would meet regularly. Six different regions were set up in a smart move to keep travel to a minimum. Clubs sprung up everywhere. In 1921, both Ardara and Glenties were formed in a spirit of nationalist fervour. That decade was one of consumerist growth. It all helped. In 1923 there were 9,246 motorcars registered in the county. By 1930, that figure had grown to 32,632. The county footballers first made an appearance in the Ulster championship of 1905/06 where they were beaten 0-20 to 0-1 by Derry. A year later and the score was 0-18 to 0-2. They checked out then until 1919 and became a fixture from then on. The country changed. Donegal may have been lagging behind but they were still moving forward. A dance in Donegal town in September 1921 was reported on as, 'Irish dances were in the ascendant. No jazzing or one stepping. Any attempt to introduce these ugly, disgusting things would have been immediately frustrated and criticised'. A year later, the people of Gaoth Dobhair went for it with full jazzing and one-stepping to beat the band and were rounded on by the local press. The establishment of the Department of the Gaeltacht went about revitalising those communities on the western seaboard, just as tourism was taking off and Bundoran was becoming an Irish Blackpool. Donegal was arriving. ***** Almost everything they achieved in Gaelic football had the imprint of two men: Brian McEniff and Jim McGuinness. For their first Ulster title in 1972, McEniff was a player who won an All-Star. He was also the team manager, at the age of 30. Two year later he repeated the trick and while the reigning Ulster winning manager, was ousted by a county board that were familiar with the whetstone. In all, he managed Donegal five times. He won five Ulster titles and an All-Ireland in 1992, when he carried a teenage McGuinness on the panel, nicknamed 'Cher' by the squad on account of his long curly black hair. Brian McEniff with the Sam Maguire, 1992. Billy Stickland / INPHO Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO McEniff's final stint as manager brought them to an All-Ireland semi-final loss to Armagh. But it was also achieved while he was the serving county board chairman. McGuinness has now also accumulated five Ulster titles: 2011, 2012, 2014, 2024 and this year to go along with the All-Ireland in 2012, while Declan Bonner managed Donegal to Ulster success in 2018 and 2019. Throughout the decades in the method of playing football, Donegal had a certain way of doing things. They were early adopters of the fist-pass and carried the ball tight to their chests. Even today, that's the Donegal house style. Work the ball through the hands. Your feet are for shooting. They don't apologise for that. In the past, McGuinness has linked the 2012 All-Ireland with the 1992 All-Ireland in terms of style. 'That identity, what goes on in club football with the wind coming in off the Atlantic, it happens every day of the week,' he said in an interview over the past year. 'That style got us over the line in '92 and it happened in '12 again.' The Donegal bench, with a teenage Jim McGuinness standing, await the final whistle of the 1992 All-Ireland final. Billy Stickland / INPHO Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO Now, you can point out that it all sounds a little fanciful given that other western seaboard counties such as Galway and Kerry have known a gust of wind in their time and haven't been afraid to give the ball an odd kick. But that was bred into him. Even when McGuinness was a teenage sub on the first Donegal team to win the All-Ireland in 1992, their full-back Matt Gallagher went the entire game in the final against Dublin without kicking the football once, instead laying it off with a handpass every time. Doing it their own way is the county character. Take the music for example. The Donegal style of Irish traditional music is very connected to the Scottish Highlands. Almost exclusively played by fiddle. The cradle of this music originates from the areas around Gaoth Dobhair, while Johnny Doherty of Ardara was the most famous and renowned exponent of popularising it. It is played with single bowing, making it choppy, staccato and raw. Not to say that it is unsophisticated, but there are those that can look down their noses at it. Put it this way: Donegal traditional music is the most distinct from the others. For reasons, primarily geographic and cultural isolation, it has absorbed precious few other influences. It won't surprise you to learn that their Sean-nós singing is fairly unique also. Again, they do things their own way. And there's a particular strength that comes with that. When Jim McGuinness made his complaints around having to play Mayo in Dr Hyde Park this year, he'd have known this was no huge injustice. Especially with Kerry having to play Meath in Tullamore the day before. Instead, he was channelling his former manager, Brian McEniff. During the 2003 championship, McEniff made an enormous noise about having to play an All-Ireland quarter-final replay against Galway, in Castlebar. 'A pilgrimage to Castlebar,' he called it when the venue was announced. Given that the opposition was Galway, some of the Donegal players sniggered at their quirky manager. But McGuinness – who appeared as an injury-time sub for Christy Toye that day – would have noted the support that Donegal garnered through McEniff's proclamation. 'It would only happen because it's us,' said McGuinness of having to go to Roscommon. If 2012 owed something to 1992, then the lessons taught by McEniff go deep. ***** In a way, it's absolutely amazing. At The Famine Village in Doagh, the proprietor Patrick Doherty talked of living in his family home with the thatched roof and the low entry. Related Reads 'One of my early years, I had the match played in my head a thousand times beforehand' David Clifford 'could be the best player that has ever played the game' - McGuinness 'It's challenging but it's adding to the entertainment' - Goalkeeper view on new rules There were a few 'back in the day' yarns, one which centred around how mothers treated teething weans to the long stems of seaweed, coiled up. The child would bite on the tough stem and the taste of sea salt would please them enough to stop the crying. Doagh Famine Village. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo What changed everything, he said, was the entry into the European Economic Community in 1973, and the acceleration of events in 1984. The Man From The Council would then come round to your thatched house and order it to be tumbled and replaced with a fresh house. The clothing company, Fruit of the Loom, came to Buncrana in 1987 and employed thousands. Ireland was modernising. Donegal's modernisation was gaining pace, building on the existing and improving tourism industry. Think about it. For a couple hundred years, they were few areas in Europe quite as remote as Donegal. People ate the seaweed and cockles off the beaches and what they could catch on a rod. Now, the world comes to them. To taste their now legally-distilled Poitín. To chew on the local seaweed and marvel at the few thatch cottages left. They sit in recreations of Irish wakes and lap up the folklore before grabbing coffee and traybakes, making plans to hear a little of that old time music later on in the evening. Americans, English, Europeans, Irish, they all come in their droves to rent out houses and take trips on the coach tours, marvelling at some of the most unspoiled views of western Europe; or at least those that have not entirely succumbed to Bungalow Blight. They have it made. In other ways, they don't. There are fishing vessels moored in the deepwater port of Killybegs that are valued around €25 million. In the past, they would have fished the waters nine months of the year with people employed the length of Bundoran to Falcarragh within the industry. Now, the boats can leave the harbour in late October but they have to be finished by the start of March. Other crews from Spain, The Netherlands and Portugal can dock in Killybegs and travel 15 miles outside the bay to fish their bigger quotas. That's got to rub a few noses in it. Even something as emphatically Donegal as a day on the bog is gone. People still 'win' the turf, but it's a clandestine affair and selling turf for burning has been banned since 2022. Given the misery of the mid-1800s outlined earlier, you'd be forgiven for believing that Donegal had never achieved prominence. Within the Donegal GAA crest is a right hand gripping a red cross, the coat of arms of the O'Donnell Clan. They ruled Tír Chonaill for centuries as old royalty of the Gaelic nobility system. Frequently warring with other clans, most notably the O'Neill's, their most famous member was Red Hugh O'Donnell who was instrumental in many battles during the Nine Years War. Eventually though, after red Hugh's death in 1602, Rory O'Donnell engineered the Flight of the Earls on 14 September 1607, taking the prominent members and supporters of the families in a ship holding a reported number of 99. An art installation commemorates the Flight of the Earls, Ramelton. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Leaving for Spain in a French boat hired in Nantes six months previously, determined to seek Catholic support, particularly from Spain to challenge English rule in Ireland. It never happened for them. As they left Ireland behind them, nervously looking at the shores of Lough Swilly, paranoid that the English were aware of their plan, they left behind a leadership void. One that was filled by the Plantation of Ulster by English and Scottish settlers. The descendants of the O'Donnells and O'Neills would go on to die young on foreign battlefields or rise to nobility and loyalty in Europe. Prior to their departure, they had elevated Donegal to international renown. The contrast in centuries was hammered home in one letter to The Irish Times some years ago, when a daughter recalled telling her father that his native parish in Donegal was hanging on a wall in the Doges Palace, Venice, in the 17th Century. He replied: 'Imagine, the Venetians knew about us in the 1700s and Dublin only discovered us in the 1960s!' They know all about them now. ***** Check out the latest episode of The42′s GAA Weekly podcast here
