The Donegal men who won the FAI Cup down the years

If Bohemians defeat St Patrick's Athletic in next Sunday's FAI Senior Cup final at the Aviva Stadium, Georgie Kelly will join a select group of Donegal players who have won FAI Senior Cup medals having played in the finals. 

The first Donegal men to win an FAI Senior Cup title were Gerry Murray from Ballybofey and Rathmullan’s Jim Sheridan, who were part of the Finn Harps team who achieved an historic win in 1974 by defeating St Patrick's Athletic 3-1 in the final in Dalymount Park.

The Finn Harps team which won the cup in 1974 was managed by Patsy McGowan and seven years later in 1981 he was back in the final again but by then he was managing Harps' north-west neighbours Sligo Rovers. While there were only two Donegal men in Harps' Cup winning side in 1974, no fewer than six Donegal players started for Sligo Rovers in the 1981 final against Dundalk.

Unfortunately for Donegal Town’s Declan McIntyre, Milford native Mickey Ferry, Paddy Sheridan from Rathmullan, Charlie McGeever of Derryconnor, Gerry Doherty of Carndonagh and Liam Patton of the Twin Towns, they lost out to Dundalk on a 2-0 scoreline. Ironically, Dundalk had defeated Finn Harps 1-0 in the semi-final that year in Milltown, thus depriving fans of what would have been a tasty north-west derby final between Harps and a Sligo Rovers team managed by McGowan and laden with Donegal players.

One of the Donegal contingent that lost with Sligo in 1981, Mickey Ferry, was back in the final in 1983 and was part of the first ever Sligo Rovers team to win the FAI Cup when they beat Bohemians in the final 2-1.

The next Donegal man to play in an FAI Senior Cup final was Denis Bonner from Cloughglass in 1985 when he was on the Galway United team that lost 1-0 to Shamrock Rovers. Galway's defeat spoiled a unique double as Denis's brother, Packie, won a Scottish Cup medal with Celtic that year. There was to be some consolation for Denis a year later when he captained Galway United to their first senior trophy, a league cup win in a 2-0 defeat of Dundalk with the Galway goals being scored by himself and Harps 1974 cup winner Paul McGee.

Paul Hegarty from Argary, Ballindrait, was part of the Derry City squad that won the FAI Cup in 1989. He didn’t play in the final and replay though, as Dery completed the treble thanks to a 1-0 win over Cork City, with Felix Healy, as well-known about Finn Park, the goalscorer.

Galway United got their revenge on Shamrock Rovers in the 1991 final with a 1-0 win, in only the second final to be played at Lansdowne Road. Bonner had departed by that stage but another Donegal man, Declan McIntyre, was the goalkeeper on the victorious Galway team. He would make up for his defeat with Sligo Rovers 10 years earlier to become the next Donegal player to win a Senior Cup medal.

Then, came Declan Boyle from Killybegs, who was on the Sligo Rovers team that beat Derry City 1-0 in the 1994 final to add to the First Division title and League Cup success that season. Letterkenny's Tony Blake was sub keeper. That Derry City team was managed by Tony O'Doherty, another member of the Finn Harps 1974 winning team.

An interesting aside to that final was that dual player, Armagh's Ger Houlahan, missed the final because it clashed with Armagh's opening Ulster Championship game. Houlahan had scored Sligo's winner in the cup quarter-final. Boyle would go on to lose two cup finals, one with Derry City in 1997 and the other with Finn Harps in 1999.
The list of Donegal winners would have increased substantially if Harps hadn't been defeated 2-1 by Bray Wanderers in the 1999 final after a second replay.

Three Donegal men - Greencastle’s Mark Farren, Killea’s Kevin McHugh and substitute Gareth McGlynn from Inch - won FAI Cup medals with Derry City when they defeated St Patrick's Athletic after extra-time in the 2006 final, the last soccer game to be played at the old Lansdowne Road stadium. That Cup final was voted by League of Ireland fans as the greatest ever FAI Cup final in a 2013 poll.

St Pat's took the lead three times before Derry battled back, equalising three times and then getting the winner through an own goal. Mark Farren nearly equalled Charlie Ferry's 1974 run of scoring in every round, the second round being the only one he didn't score in. All three were then on the losing side in the 2008 final when Derry City lost to Bohemians on penalties.

In their next cup final win in 2012, Derry City had another two Donegal men in their starting eleven - current Finn Harps player and Ramelton native Barry McNamee and Stephen McLaughlinfrom the Isle of Doagh, Clonmany, were part of the side which defeated St Patrick's Athletic 3-2 after extra-time. T

In the 2015 FAI Cup final, Johnny Dunleavy had the opportunity to become only the second Donegal man after Jim Sheridan to captain an FAI Cup winning team but his Cork City side were defeated by Dundalk. He did, though, raise the cup the year afterwards, although did not play in the final. 

Stephen O'Donnell, current St Patrick's Athletic head coach, came on as a substitute for Dundalk in that game. It would be ironic if Georgie Kelly should score the winner next Sunday given O'Donnell's strong Donegal links.

His father, Dungloe man, PJ O'Donnell, captained Dungloe to an U-14 county championship title in 1966 and four years later he came on as a sub for Rosses Rovers in the Donegal SFC final against St Joseph's. That 1970 final was the last appearance by a Rosses team in a Donegal SFC final.

Kelly, who is from Tooban, won a Buncrana Cup medal with Donegal back in 2012, will hope to go one better than 2014 when he was part of the Scoil Mhuire Secondary School, Buncrana, team that lost the FAI Schools' Tony O'Neill Senior Cup final to Summerhill College, Sligo, in a thrilling game in Maginn Park.

Among his Buncrana teammates that day were current Harps player Mark Coyle and current Donegal GAA player Caolan McGonagle. He also finished runner up with Dundalk in the 2019 FAI Cup final when they lost to Shamrock Rovers on penalties. He came on as a late substitute in that game. The previous year he was part of Dundalk's match-day squad for the final but he played no part that day in their win over Cork City.

So can Kelly become the next Donegal player to play and win an FAI Senior Cup medal after Jim Sheridan, Gerry Murray, Mickey Ferry, Declan McIntyre, Declan Boyle, Mark Farren, Kevin McHugh, Gareth McGlynn, Barry McNamee and Stephen McLaughlin?