'To Hell or to Connacht' – John Haran recalls Donegal's 2003 MacHale Park adventure

The mentioning of a match in Castlebar could send a shiver down the spine of most Donegal supporters, after all, the last championship game the county played there was in 2019 against Mayo in the Super 8s – a day to forget no doubt. 

On a dense soupy night in Castlebar in front of 27,000 supporters, Donegal once again fell at the final hurdle of the group stages. Going into the last game as favourites, just as they did the year previous against Tyrone, they once again learned a valuable lesson about what happens when you put the cart before the horse. 

Then managed by Declan Bonner, the then Division 2 champions and Ulster winners had somewhere along the way attained the unofficial mantle of the team most likely to beat Dublin, but that day in MacHale Park they never took flight, losing out to James Horan’s side on a 1-14 to 1-10 scoreline. 

It was not a day or venue the men from Ulster wanted to revisit anytime soon. 

But cast the mind back a little further, 21 years ago this August to be exact, and MacHale Park was the place to be, a day of glory and happiness not seen in Donegal GAA since their All-Ireland win 11 years previous. 

An occasion that then team manager Brian McEniff referred to it as “as good of a day I’ve had with Donegal football”. 

Former player John Cunningham told the Bundoran man that it was as good as the All-Ireland in 1992.

For a team so often in the doldrums of national sport at that time, that day in MacHale Park lived for a long time as Donegal’s ultimate nirvana, as they overcame a strong Galway team that day in the All-Ireland quarter-final replay. 

The Tribesmen were a formidable team, having secured the All-Ireland in 1998 and 2001 while narrowly missing out in 2000, losing to Kerry in the final after a replay. 

In contrast, Donegal were a promising side, having been knocked out in the quarter-finals by Dublin the previous season, losing their concentration before the replay in Croke Park, they allowed Dublin to advance comfortably to the semi-finals. 

Manager Mickey Moran chose not to continue as manager after the 2002 elimination, leaving Donegal struggling to find a successor. 

McEniff, the then County Chairman, was asked to take on the role temporarily to stabilise the team until he found a successor. It was stated that he approached at least seven former players from the 1992 side, inviting them to take on the manager role, but none were willing. 

In the end, McEniff decided to manage the team himself, in what became a rollercoaster of a year, as former county man and St Eunan’s legend John Haran takes up the story. 

“I think people need to understand, the reason that win against Galway after the replay was so celebrated was because given where we were a few months earlier . . . Donegal was at an all-time low,” Haran admitted. 

“We had a terrible league campaign, we lost to Fermanagh in the first round of the Ulster championship, but then we started to gain a little bit of momentum as the season went on through the back door. We beat Longford, Sligo, Tipperary and Down which got us to a quarter-final where we played Galway in Croke Park. 

“There’s no doubt we should’ve beat Galway that day, they were one of the best teams in Ireland and we gave them a real challenge. I kicked over what I thought was the winning point, I think it was my only score ever in Croke Park, but then they came down and equalised and brought the match to a replay. 

“It was so unfortunate because I had the chance of putting us two points up in the dying minutes, but instead of fisting the ball over the bar, I squared it to Brendan Boyle, we lost possession, and they luckily got a draw out of it from a Kevin Walsh point, but it looked like our chance was gone after that day in Croke Park.” 

With the replay believed to be scheduled in GAA HQ again, the association took the decision to fix the match for Castlebar. With that, never had the phrase ‘To Hell or to Connacht’ been used so much in the space of a week in Donegal GAA circles. 

“We did our final training session on Fintra Beach before having a team meeting in the Tower afterward. McEniff had a real siege mentality, he had it all worked out. The game plan was about getting us riled up, and how it was a disgrace that we were being forced to play in Castlebar . . . he kept calling it Galway’s second home,” Haran said. 

“It was proper war stuff, like I think he went to the media with all this, and it really did galvanize the Donegal supporters. I remember going down to Castlebar that day and there was a massive Donegal crowd. I can still remember it, it was a really sunny day and whatever happened, we just hit form and we were determined that we were not going to be beaten.”

Leading 0-9 to 0-6 points at the break, Donegal were bracing themselves for a Galway onslaught after the restart. However, it didn’t play out like that as McEniff’s men proved the better side against a sluggish Galway team. Their first real break since 1992 was moments away. 

They did require their goalkeeper Tony Blake to make smart saves from Padraic Joyce and Michael Meehan in the second half, while Shane Carr cleared Matthew Clancy’s shot off the line. However, Donegal were full value for their win on a 0-14 to 0-11 point scoreline. 

“It was unreal but beating Galway that day was a bit strange. I think the Galway boys back then could be a bit cocky and wouldn’t be long looking down on you back then. But funny enough, earlier that summer, we played Galway in a challenge game in Sligo, and they absolutely hammered us. I remember they were laughing at us, I think they thought they would hammer us again, but it didn’t happen that day,” he said. 

“It was a great summer, a bit of an adventure, of course things look great when you’re winning but it probably was our greatest win since 1992, and we had great players like Cassidy, Devenney, Toye, McGuinness, it was a different time, but it was a great time. 

“I could’ve been a real hero in Croke Park the first day if I took that second point to put us two up, but that was a great day in Castlebar and I hope the lads, although the circumstances are different now, have as good a day this weekend against Clare in the same place.”