Donegal League at 50: Idea born on cigarette box reaches Golden Jubilee

Dick Duffy had heard enough and began scribbling on his cigarette box.

A September night in 1971 gathered representatives from various sporting codes at the Butt Hall in Ballybofey. Judge Conroy, a representative of the IRFU, presided at the meeting.

Duffy, who was the secretary of Letterkenny Rovers FC, was heavily involved in youth football in Donegal.

He had a vision for something bigger. For something better.,

It was already more than an idea in his mind.

He passed the cigarette box to the collared man seated to his right.

Fr Michael Sweeney read the box of Major cigarettes and wondered.

'We should form a Donegal League'.

Duffy, Fr Mick, Fr Sean Gallagher and Joseph King left the Butt Hall meeting early.

The wheels were already in motion, even if many were unaware.

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Two months later, Duffy sent a circular around 24 clubs about the formation of the Donegal Junior League.

Duffy and Fr Mick presented a case to the FAI for membership and in March 1972 the Donegal League got underway.

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The first Donegal League committee was under the Chair of Paddy McFadden, a native of Annagry based in Letterkenny with Duffy as the secretary and Fr Mick the treasurer.

“Dick was a visionary,” says Charlie Collins, who played in that first season with Letterkenny Rovers.

“As a player, the Donegal League's formation was huge. We played underage football on an all-weather pitch at the top of the Creggan in Derry. We progresed on to playing in the Summer Cups, but the Donegal League being created was just something else.

“You knew you'd have a game every week and the fixtures were all put out in advance.”

The first season, a short one, was played in two sections with Lifford Celtic the first winners. They overcame Swilly Rovers 4-2 in the final at Leckview Park.

D Porter, H Casey, T Patton, D Burns, G Crossan, V Shiels. H White, J Callan, R White, M Gormley and T White made up the Lifford squad.

“The crowds at those matches back then were huge,” remembers Lifford Celtic stalwart Robbie White.

“There was no organised football in Donegal until then, remember. Teams were playing in all the big Summer Cups. We had the makings of a good team in Lifford and there were some brilliant teams across Donegal.

“We had a couple of big battles with Swilly Rovers. They were robust games to say the least. Some of them had people who weren't players going onto the field!

“We played them in one particular game and I remember thinking: 'I don't want to play Swilly for a while'.”

The following Wednesday night, the draw was made for the Top Four Cup: Lifford Celtic v Swilly Rovers.

Administration was a different animal back then.

Mickey Duffy remembers well the days when his father, Dick, would run the League from their house on the Back Road.

He'd land home from a shift at the Model Bakery and the referee's match cards would be distributed with the breadmen.

He used the phone of the late Sean Curran, who was the editor of the Derry People & Donegal News at the time.

The callers to the Duffy house were regular. Manus McCole of Keadue Rovers was a frequent visitor. One evening, he called with a disciplinary gripe.

Bried Duffy, Dick's wife, made the Keadue man his dinner. There followed ice cream for McCole, now perched on the Duffy's setee.

“How could I look about a protest when Mrs Duffy came out with the ice cream?” McCole would later remember.

Duffy recruited Hugh Doherty to look after the referees committee and a disciplinary committee was formed in a unique move.

“Dick Duffy was a visionary,” Collins says. “If you wanted something done, he was the man to do it.

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“Dick was so centrally involved and was a big man in the club here. There was an awareness and an amazement of what he was trying to do. Everyone involved in soccer knew what he was trying to do and just hoped that he'd succeed.

“For us, the Donegal League's formation got us to places that we had heard of but never been to: Killybegs, Keadue, Gweedore. Then, of course, we had our derby matches with Swilly.

“Every Sunday was a great game; a hard game against a good team every week. It was an incredible experience actually and it was so well organised.

“We'd have been excited by the prospect of having a League in our own county.

“We had organised football through the underage system in Derry, but this was different.”

There were, he recalls, exciting trips to the places that were almost a mystery: Greenbrae, Traigh-A-Loch, Central Park, Emerald Park.

Not everyone was convinced. Fr Mick recalled how one prominent player told him before a ball had even been kicked: “It was tried before and it didn't work. It will not work this time either.”

Work it did.

In the 1980s, the League executive purchased a site at Ballyare that is now known as The Diamond Park – the League's headquarters.

“The right people were doing the right jobs,” White, who was a member of the extended first committee, says.

“That stood to the people involved. The worry was that it would start and just stop as quickly again.

“Dick didn't just take people in off the street. He knew who he wanted and what he wanted them to do.

“The standard was good. There weren't as many teams as there is now. I feel now that there are too many teams and it has dulled the standard a bit.”

White can reel off the names of his own Lifford from the early days and the influence of the likes of Darky White and Hughie White – a renowned goalscorer who would later sign for Sligo Rovers only for knee issues to end his career.

They played Fanad and the familiar face of Seamus Given was manning the nets for the Traigh-A-Loch side. Fanad would win the next three titles after Lifford took the maiden triumph.

“There were real soccer strongholds at the time,” White says. “Real hotbeds of soccer. “You could see that with the crowds that were out.”

The first Donegal League saw the teams divided into two sections. Section A included Curragh Athletic, Fern United, Arcade Athletic, Annagry, Fanad United, Lifford Celtic, Downings, Herdsmans, Finn Harps, Lagan Harps and Ballybofey. However, Downings withdrew before the first series of games.

Section B had Swilly Rovers, Keadue Rovers, Donegal Town, Kildrum Tigers, St Catherine's, Rathmullan Celtic, Carndonagh, Gweedore Celtic, Army, Falcarragh, Creeslough and Kerrykeel 71 Club.

On this weekend 50 years ago, the following were the results: St Catherine's 7 Army 2, Anagry 6 Arcade 0, Gweedore Celtic 1 Swilly 2, Creeslough 0 Carndonagh 2, Ballybofey 1 Curragh 4, Keadue 3 Donegal Town 2, Fern United 3 Lagan Harps 2, Kerrykeel 3 Rathmullan 4.

The other games – Finn Harps v Herdsmans, Lifford v Letterkenny and Falcarragh v Kildrum – were called off due to the weather.