Donegal play in Ballyshannon tomorrow - so who was Father Tierney?

Donegal play their first competitive match in Ballyshannon's Father Tierney Park in four years tomorrow, with Louth the visiting team.

The last time the county's senior footballers lined out in Ballyshannon was on March 1, 2020, when they ran in a 2-12 to 0-8 victory over Monaghan with Declan Bonner's back-to-back Ulster SFC winners putting in a commanding performance. 

The world locked down that month and with the Ballyshannon pitch getting relaid since, the wait is finally over. The ground is, of course, the home of Aodh Ruadh GAA club, who were founded on October 24, 1909, by Fr James O'Daly. 

Less than a week later they were in action at the Workhouse Meadow, which is now known as Munday's Field, adjacent to what's now known as Father Tierney Park.

The club moved around, playing in the Rock area and then at Erne Park, which saw electricity lines put over it with the Erne hydroelectric scheme in the 1940s, so it was time to move on. In 1947, for a price of £1,048. 18s. 10d, and a year later it grained county ground status, with work continuing, with rock removed, the pitch levelled and sown in 1952.

On June 9, 1954, the ground was opened, named Father Tierney Park, with 4,000 in attendance. By 1968, Donegal County Board used Ballyshannon as its secondary county ground. The stand first opened in 2981 and then, Áras Aodh Ruadh was opened in 2001.

Father Cornelius Tierney was born on December 8, 1871, at Knockawaddy, Clones, Co Monaghan. His father was a farmer and
in the 1901 census, Cornelius was enumerated at St Macartan's, Monaghan, aged 26 - a Clergyman, a Bachelor of University, a teacher of English and Classics. He was appointed curate at St Joseph's Parish in Ballyshannon in 1911 and served six years before going to prepare for the Maynooth Mission to China, where he moved in 1920.

Taken captive on November 14, 1930, by Chinese Communist bandits who believed him to be "an imperialist spy" in the Nancheng diocese, part of what is now known as Wuhan. He died from the hardships of captivity while still a prisoner in 1931. He was 58 years old. Although the date of March 5, 1931, is noted on the headstone, other sources give his date of death as February 28, 1931.