Donegal players who have won senior titles in other counties

Compiled by Gerald Boyle

Paul Durcan will hope to emulate Donal Buggy (Aodh Ruadh) when he lines out for Drumcliffe-Rosses Point in the County Sligo Senior Football final in Markievicz Park on Sunday.

Buggy holds the record of being the only Donegal man to win Senior Football Championship titles in three different counties. He won Donegal titles with Aodh Ruadh in 1994, '97 and '98 and won a Cavan SFC with Cavan Gaels in 2001 as well as a Wexford title with Killanerin-Ballyfad in 2003. Durcan has won SFC medals with Four Masters in 2003 and with Ballyboden St. Enda’s in Dublin in 2015.

Two Donegal men came close to winning SFC titles in three different counties prior to Buggy achieving the feat. Martin Carney won a plethora of Donegal SFC titles with St. Joseph’s (Ballyshannon/Bundoran); his first coming in 1968 while he was still a student in St. Eunan’s College, Letterkenny. His first SFC final outside of Donegal was in 1973 when his UCG team were beaten by Dunmore McHales in the Galway SFC final. After transferring his allegiance to Mayo, he won two SFC medals with Castlebar Mitchell’s in 1986 and 1988.

Goalkeeper, Gerry McGill (Naomh Columba) was the other Donegal man who won SFC titles in two counties and was a defeated finalist in another. He played in Naomh Columba’s defeat by Aodh Ruadh in the 1998 Donegal final, the last of Naomh Columba’s five final defeats of the 1990s. His luck turned, however, when he won a Dublin SFC medal with UCD in 2002 and with Eire Og in Carlow in 2005, 2007 and 2018. He also won an Intermediate medal with Emo in Laois in 2012 as player manager.

In addition to Durcan, Carney and McGill, at least seven other Donegal men have won SFC medals in two different counties. Paddy Coyle of Gweedore, father of Meath stalwart Colm Coyle, was probably the first player from Donegal to win SFC titles in two different counties. He did a three-in-a-row of Donegal titles with his native Gweedore in 1953, 1954 and 1955 and on taking up employment in Co Meath, he won another three-in-a-row with Navan O’Mahony’s in 1959, 1960 and 1961.

After Paddy Coyle, the next Donegal man to do a double was Bernard Brady (St. Joseph’s). He won the first of his two Dublin SFC titles with UCD in 1963 and in 1965 he achieved the unusual distinction of winning two SFC titles in the same year! In June of that year he won his second Dublin title with UCD and then in November he captained St Joseph’s to their first Donegal SFC title when they beat Glenties after a replay.

The other Donegal men who won, both inside and outside of the county, are Paul McGettigan, who won with St. Eunan’s in 1983 and in Galway with St. Grellan’s, Ballinasloe in 1979. Anthony Harkin and Michael Houston both won Limerick SFC medals with Thomond College in 1977. In Donegal, Harkin won with Ardara in 1981 and Houston with St. Eunan’s in 1983. Gary Walsh won Donegal title with Aodh Ruadh in 1986, 1987 and 1998 after captaining Burren to a Down SFC title a year earlier in 1997 and Anthony Gallagher won with St Eunan's and Bryansford in Co Down.

There are several players who won a SFC in one county but were defeated finalists in another. They include Seamus Bonner, who captained Civil Service to the Dublin title in 1980 but was a runner up twice in Donegal with Clanna Gael in 1971 and 1972. Brendan Dunleavy (MacCumhaill’s in 1977), Finian Ward (Glencolumcille in 1978) and Noel McCole (St. Eunan’s 1983) all won in Donegal but were defeated finalists in Dublin.

After Dublin, the outside county where Donegal men have won the most medals is Meath. In addition to Paddy Coyle winning with Navan O’Mahony’s, Paddy Carr (Fanad) won a few titles with Walterstown, Paul O’Donnell (Four Masters) won SFC titles with Skryne in 1999 and 2004 and Ciaran O’Fearraigh captained Ratoath to their first Meath SFC title in 2019.

There are likely to be others. Any info please send to sports editor at sport@donegaldemocrat.com