Naul McCole reflects on Dungloe's golden period

Naul McCole is one of Dungloe GAA’s stars of yesteryear, best known to more recent generations as a leading and long-serving official with club, county and province.

But the Burtonport native was also an accomplished footballer in his younger years and his trophy chest boasts two Donegal SFC medals, two Democrat Cup Division 1 medals and one MFC medal.

Those two Dr Maguire wins came back-to-back in 1957 and 1958. But - as fate would have it - that ‘58 championship triumph would transpire to be the last of Dungloe’s seven SFC haul.

Coincidently, Dungloe defeated St Eunan’s in that decider by 2-6 to 2-5, after a replay when the drawn game had ended Dungloe 1-6 to St Eunan’s 0-9.

Naul - who turned 85 in May - is one of a handful of survivors from that great team of the 1950s and he was also on board when Dungloe last reached the final hurdle in 1964.

A student at St Enda’s in Galway, Naul was also a graduate from the Dungloe’s superb MFC winning team of 1956 - the exact same year Donegal tasted Ulster MFC success for the very first time. And that was a Donegal minor team that included three Dungloe men, Paul Sweeney - who went to play with the highly popular Capital Showband at the time; the legendary Sean O’Donnell and John Campbell.

He recalled: “We beat Four Masters in the final but we had a better minor team in 1957 but Ardara beat us in the early rounds and we were out.

“Sean O’Donnell, John Campbell, Manus Ward, Joe O’Donnell and myself from the minors all went on to play on the senior team and to win those championships. But Sean and Manus were the only ones that played against Aodh Ruadh in the 1957 final”.

And the rivalry between Dungloe and Gaoth Dobhair was, by this stage, already one of the fiercest in the county.
“My big memory in ‘57 is not of the final win over Ballyshannon but our four games with Gaoth Dobhair in the west division. They were a series of games that ultimately led to the altering of the divisional structures in the county. We drew with Gaoth Dobhair in Magheragallon in the first game. The second game in Dungloe also ended in a draw. So it had to go to a play-off. Those games back in those years drew huge crowds with people cycling from all ends of the two parishes to the games in Magheragallon and Rosses Park.

“Rather than drag both sets of supporters to Ballybofey for the play-off, the two clubs decided to toss for the venue. Dungloe won the toss and so the game was fixed for Rosses Park the next Sunday.

“I remember we got off to a good start and built up a good lead and we were also ahead at half-time. But early in the second half, all hell broke loose when John Campbell was taken out of it. The field was rushed and the referee abandoned the game.
“The encounter was refixed for Ballybofey for the following Thursday evening. Every form of transport from cars, lorries and bicycles, in the two parishes, were used to get to MacCumhaill Park.

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“They reckon there was a crowd of 4,000 in Ballybofey that evening with so many neutrals also intent on seeing these two great rivals square off. We won the game, which went off without any major flare-ups, and went on to win the championship outright. 

“But there was a lot of fallout from the abandoned game with Gaoth Dobhair and a lot of ill feeling in both parishes.
“Shops in Gaoth Dobhair refused to stock bread from the Rosses and Cope bakeries. Machine and quarrymen from the Rosses were not welcome in Gaoth Dobhair.

“Genuinely, that is how serious it became and it lasted for a good few years afterwards. It really was an awful time. And feelings ran so high that Dungloe put a motion to County Convention at the end of the year to move from the west division to the south west. The motion was passed by 60 votes to 39 and Dungloe has played in the south west ever since.”
So Dungloe began the 1958 championship in new geographical territory where the likes of Ardara, Naomh Conaill, Naomh Ultan and Kilcar lay in wait.

Dungloe beat Naomh Conaill and Ardara twice and Naomh Ultan defeated Kilcar twice to set up a Dungloe and Naomh Ultan meeting in the south west final in Glenties which Dungloe won 1-8 to 1-4.

Gaoth Dobhair emerged from the west following wins over Cloughaneely and Sheephaven but by the time the quarter-final meeting with St Eunan’s came about they had fallen foul of the authorities.

“The Donegal county board came down hard on them and banned them for 12 months after a wristwatch tournament game between St Eunan’s and Gaoth Dobhair in Letterkenny was abandoned.

“Wristwatch tournaments were a big thing back in the 50s and 60s and we played in them in Derry and Tyrone. It sounds bizarre but wristwatch tournaments were very popular with players because each winning team was presented with a wristwatch - a much sought after timepiece in 1950s Ireland.\

“We played in them all over Ulster. I read somewhere recently we had taken a 20-game unbeaten run into the 1958 season and that would have included a lot of tournaments. I can’t recall if any sanction was imposed on St Eunan’s but in any case they advanced to beat Four Masters in the semi-final. We had a big win over Carndonagh to set up a Dungloe and St Eunan’s final.

“The first game ended in a draw and the second game was close as well with Dungloe only winning by a point. I have no recall from either game as I missed both of them. I was a student in St Enda’s, a boarder, and I was not allowed out for the games.
“Back then, once you went in at the start of September, you were not allowed out again until Christmas. I had played a number of games up to the final so I still have the medal.”

Another three seasons came and went before Dungloe and Naul were back in another county final. That was the 1961 final with old foes Gaoth Dobhair the opposition.

“As far as I can recall it was the first meeting since the ill-fated 1957 play-off game in Rosses Park and that four-game saga”.
Naul, by now a qualified national school teacher, had nailed down a place in the starting team at corner back.

“We had a strong team and we had a good few survivors from ‘57 still on the team. As you can imagine, because it was our first meeting since the abandoned game, there was a lot of chat and a lot of hype locally in the build-up to the game. I don’t know if that got to us. But we never got into the game and we did not play well. Gaoth Dobhair were the better team on the day and were deserving winners.

“My memory of the game is sketchy but I do recall Owenie McBride and one of the Breslins, I think it was Cormac, played well for Gaoth Dobhair. Owenie McBride was one of the top footballers in Donegal at the time and I always wondered how he only ever got a handful of games with the county team.”

The fallout from the 1957 saga ran deep and lasted years. But in ‘a hands across the Crolly’ peace gesture on the 25th anniversary of the 1961 final win, Gaoth Dobhair invited all the members of the 1961 Dungloe team to their presentation function.

Naul McCole, Sean O’Donnell and Packie Boyle were the only players who turned up for the function.
“We were treated very well and the three of us were presented with mementoes of the anniversary and, overall, the night went very well. It was a magnanimous gesture by the Gaoth Dobhair club and it was the start of the healing process. The rivalry is still there but it is a healthy one nowadays and long may it continue.”

Naul and Dungloe suffered a second county final defeat a further three years on when the ‘three-in-a-row’ MacCumhaills team proved too strong. That was the 1964 decider and the last SFC final Dungloe ever played in.

The 1961 Dungloe team defeated by Gaoth Dobhair in the final.
Packie Boyle (Ferry); Paddy O’Donnell (RIP), Neil Gerard O’Donnell (Rip), Naul McCole; Owenie Boyle, James Cookie Boyle (RIP), Manus Ward; Eddie O’Donnell(RIP), Jim Connors; Sean O’Donnell, John Campbell (RIP), Ben O’Donnell (RIP); Seamus McGuire, John G Boyle (RIP), Fred Sweeney (RIP).
Subs used: Tony Keyes, Pat Murphy, Patrick Roarty.
The 1964 Dungloe team defeated by MacCumhaills
Packie Boyle (Ferry); Jim Connor (RIP), Neil Gerard O’Donnell (RIP), Naul McCole; Ben O’Donnell, Manus Ward, Owenie Boyle; Sean O’Donnell, Pat Murphy; Dermot Logue, Sean Ferriter, Pat Forker (RIP); Fred Sweeney(RIP), Joe Joyce, John Campbell (RIP).
Subs used; Aloyous Bonner (RIP), Eddie O’Donnell (RIP).
The 1957 Dungloe team that defeated Aodh Ruadh in final was:
Packie Boyle (Ferry); Owenie Boyle, Frank White (RIP), Paddy O’Donnell (RIP); Manus Ward, James Cookie Boyle (RIP), Joe O’Donnell (RIP); Eddie O’Donnell (RIP), Sean O’Donnell; Dermot Logue, Dom Murray (RIP), Donal Boyle; John Campbell (RIP), Dan Bonner (RIP), Hugh McGee (RIP).
The 1958 Dungloe team that defeated St Eunans, after a replay, in the final:
Packie Boyle (Ferry); Owenie Boyle, Dan Bonner (RIP), Paddy O’Donnell (RIP); Manus Ward, James Cookie Boyle (RIP), Patrick Roarty; Eddie O’Donnell (RIP), Sean O’Donnell; Ben O’Donnell (RIP), Dom Murray (RIP), Donal Boyle; Hugh McGee (RIP), Frank Breslin, Fred Sweeney (RIP).