Donegal's third Ulster title in 1983 came 40 years ago this month

Forty years ago this week (Monday last, 24th July) to be precise, Donegal lifted their third Ulster senior championship title with Michael Lafferty becoming the third man from the county to lift the Anglo Celt Cup.

The final, against Cavan, played in St Tiernach's Park, Cavan, on a warm day was not Donegal's best performance but they ground it out after conceding a point after 16 seconds and a goal from Cavan sharpshooter at full-forward, Derek McDonnell, on four minutes.

It took some switches to get Donegal going with the corner-backs and wing-half-backs switching positions. This, along with the scoring power of the young U-21 half-forward line of Joyce McMullin, Martin McHugh and Donal Reid, turned the game back in Donegal's favour.

The sides were level six times over the 70 minutes with a penalty goal won by Kieran Keeney before half-time becoming a turning point. Seamus Bonar fired home from the spot kick and he would have another opportunity when a second penalty was awarded late in the game, but the experienced Donegal Town man, winning his third Ulster SFC medal, elected to take a point and secure the win.

There were a number of high points from the game, not least the performance of Martin McHugh on the '40', scoring seven points and then having to leave the field injured and in some pain. It was later discovered that he had a punctured lung and ended up in hospital that night.

Watching the highlights of the game on YouTube,  some of the tackles by Michael Faulkner (if you could call them such) on Joyce McMullin would have received greater punishment in the modern game. An interesting aside about McMullin is that he spent the evening before the game in the bog footing turf. He had attended the wedding of Pauric and Mary Farragher and rather than get caught up in the celebrations, he went to the bog!

Michael Carr, complete with a mighty shiner, picked up the man of the match award, and big Martin Griffin escaped punishment when settling a minor issue with a straight right late in the game.

One interesting notice alongside the report of the game in the following week’s Donegal Democrat from the PRO thanked all for their support in winning Ulster and made an appeal for funds to help defray costs for the All-Ireland semi-final. 

For captain, Michael Lafferty, there were good memories and the MacCumhaill’s man felt there were many good performances during the campaign.

“It was a pretty tough campaign. We played Armagh here in Ballybofey, we had lost to them here the year before. We had a torrid encounter with Monaghan in Irvinestown and we managed to get through.

“We played Cavan in the final on a very, very warm day. After a nervy and poor start when we conceded a goal, we worked our way back in.  We weren’t hanging on at the end but it wasn’t a convincing win.

“We didn’t play that terribly well but we did enough to win,” said Lafferty. 

“There was a good level of expectation when we got through the All-Ireland semi-final against Galway but we fell at that hurdle, unfortunately. That story is well documented at this stage.

“Like every year, Ulster was the most competitive province.  From year to year, you don’t know who is going to come through.

“I felt the game against Armagh in the first round was probably our best game of the campaign,” said Lafferty, who said that a number of the players are no longer with us.

“Like all teams, characters emerged amongst the players. Big Griffin was a standout character. He was always the life and soul of the dressing room. There was always something going on and the boys made the most of him as well. Boys like Joyce and Matt were always having a go at him. But Griffin was the king of the one liners and he could always come back at them.

“Griffin had a very good year that year in terms of football. It was probably his best year ever. He had a very good semi-final against Galway; he was one of our better performers on the day.

“Big Bonar, big Seamus was a character too. I had lived in Dublin initially in the ‘70s and I got to know him well, himself and (Kieran) McCready used to travel to games together.

“Bonar was a big game player.

“Amongst the younger boys, you had the likes of Joyce (McMullin) and Matt (Gallagher) coming into the team. Matt was constantly yapping, as you know.

“Des Newton was a relative newcomer that year. For want of a better word, we discovered him here in Ballybofey one night. He was playing for the county juniors. The junior team was resurrected that year. I remember Austin Coughlan was in charge of it and he asked me to give him a hand.

“We played Derry in MacCumhaill Park and I saw this fella playing full-back and when I got home that night I rang McEniff and I said, Brian, there was a player playing tonight and he’s Newton, originally from Roscommon, and I think we better take a look at him.

“Des nailed down a place on the team that year,” said Lafferty, who said the Donegal team was pretty set and the only changes were because of injuries.

Lafferty says that the big opposition at the time was Armagh. They had lost to them in ‘81 and ‘82 and again in ‘84.

“They were a good team and otherwise we would have won one or two more championships. They seemed to falter a bit as well when they left Ulster,” said Lafferty.

Donegal v Monaghan in 1983

Donegal scorers: Martin McHugh 0-7; Seamus Bonar 1-1; Joyce McMullin 0-3; Donal Reid 0-2; Michael Carr 0-1.

Cavan scorers: Derek McDonnell 1-2; Martin Lynch 0-4; Donal Donohue, Michael Faulkner, Ray Cullivan, Jim Reilly and Stephen King 0-1 each.

Donegal: Noel McCole; Des Newton, Martin Griffin, Tommy McDermott; Brendan Dunleavy, Michael Lafferty, Michael Carr; Anthony Molloy, Paul McGettigan; Donal Reid, Martin McHugh, Joyce McMullin; Padraig Carr, Seamus Bonar, Kieran Keeney. Sub: Frank Rushe for McHugh (inj).

Rest of panel: Gary Walsh, Fintan Lynch, Matt Gallagher, Eunan McIntyre, Sean Gavigan, Brian Tuohy, Michael Houston, Seamus Reilly, Seamus Meehan, Dermot McGettigan, Pat McCrea.

Cavan: Damien O'Reilly; Eugene Kiernan, Jim McAweeney, Frank Dolan; Tony Brady, Joe Dillon, Jim Reilly; Adge King, Danny Finnegan; Donal Donohue, Michael Faulkner, Ray Cullivan; Martin Lynch, Derek McDonnell, Paddy McNamee. Sub: Stephen King for A King.

Referee: John Gough (Antrim)