McGuinness: Ryan Bradley's legacy means Inishowen's at the forefront of Donegal GAA

Jim McGuinness believes the impact made by players from Inishowen has acted as a springboard to those who followed.

The Donegal manager was talking following his side’s 0-23 to 1-18 win over Kerry in Killarney on Saturday, where Carndonagh’s Conor O’Donnell scored three points and Caolan McGonagle from Buncrana also put in a fine performance.

Naomh Padraig’s Coalan McColgan, who started and starred in Naomh Padraig’s run to the All-Ireland JFC final, winning both the Donegal and Ulster JFC, is awaiting to make his first inter-county appearance of 2025 following his lengthy club campaign.

“In my opinion, there are good players in every club and when I went in initially a big thing was Inishowen,” McGuinness said. “Thankfully now, you see the fruits of that - Ryan Bradley's legacy. People like Ryan and Paul McGonigle made that impact.

“You probably see the fruits of that now. We’ve got three players that are playing central positions and that's very important for Donegal moving forward. It's very positive with an Inishowen team in an All-Ireland final you know last month so all of that is very important. We have to look at Inishowen and we have to look everywhere to see what can we find.”

Prior to O’Donnell, McGonagle and McColgan’s introductions, only nine players from the Inishowen peninsula had played Championship football for Donegal since 1970.

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Phil Kelly from Muff played in 1975 in his only Ulster SFC appearance against Cavan, while John Fullerton from Buncrana also made a single appearance - against Derry in 1977. Roscommon native Des Newton made eight championship outings from 1983 to 1987, winning the Anglo-Celt in his first campaign and 1992 All-Ireland winning sub goalkeeper Paul Callaghan from Burt played in the first of his the first of his four Championship matches in 1997.

Eamonn Reddin made his debut in Championship for Donegal in 1999 against Armagh, whilst a Naomg Padraig player and when he made his second and final appearance four years later, was a clubman of Burt. McGonigle from Buncrana, who was on McGuinness’s backroom team in 2014, played 18 times for Donegal in Championship football, including the 2002 All-Ireland quarter-final against Dublin and the following year’s All-Ireland semi-final against Armagh.

Buncrana powerhouse Bradley’s name first appeared on a Championship team sheet in 2005 against Armagh and under McGuinness enjoyed great success in winning Ulster crowns in 2011 and 2011 and 2012, with Sam Maguire arriving in the north-west that second year. Declan Walsh from Malin made his bow against Cavan in 2012 and also holds a Celtic Cross and in 2014, Buncrana’s Darach O’Connor, at 17 and having not sat the Leaving Cert, was included against Derry at Celtic Park and ended up playing six times that year as another Ulster title was won- including starting the All-Ireland SFC final loss to Kerry.

“There’s a good player and every club,” McGuinness added. “There's a player at every club who knows what it is to carry the responsibility of his team. And the more you go down the divisions the more that responsibility is, so that's that's what we've tried to do.”