St Joseph's GFC (Donegal)

St Joseph's Gaelic Football Club was a Gaelic football club in County Donegal, Ireland.[1][2]

St Joseph's
Naomh Iósaef
Founded:1963
County:Donegal
Grounds:Fr Tierney Park, Ballyshannon
Coordinates:54.497863°N 8.191321°W / 54.497863; -8.191321
Playing kits
Standard colours
Senior Club Championships
All Ireland Ulster
champions		 Donegal
champions
Football: - 1 8

History

The club was formed in 1963 from the merger of Aodh Ruadh, based in Ballyshannon, and Réalt na Mara, based in Bundoran.[3][4]

Brian McEniff explained in 2013 that St Joseph's was formed when the clubs in the two towns "were doing rather poorly. In spite of the great rivalry, they came together. The bonding factor was the De La Salle College in the upper part of our parish. The De La Salle Brothers ran a very good school. There were no more than 200 boys but they could play well above their lot. It was a great GAA school. All of the boys — except myself, I went to a boarding school in Monaghan — were from De La Salle. It was a natural transition".[5]

St Joseph's won an unofficial Ulster Senior Club Football Championship against St John's in Irvinestown in 1966,[5] reached the first official final in 1968[5] and won the official tournament in 1975; they remained the only Donegal club to do so until 2018 when Gaoth Dobhair won Ulster.

The clubs separated in 1977.

Notable players

Honours

References
  1. Duggan, Keith (2 December 2011). House of Pain: Through the Rooms of Mayo Football. Random House. ISBN 9781780574066 – via Google Books.
  2. McRory, Séamus (27 November 2017). All-Ireland Dream. Wolfhound Press. ISBN 9780863279362 – via Google Books.
  3. "St. Joseph's remembered - Donegal Democrat". Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  4. Hughes, John. "Aodh Ruadh CLG, Ballyshannon // History // One Hundred Years". www.aodhruadh.org.
  5. Heaney, Paddy (25 November 2013). "The life of Brian". The Irish News. Retrieved 25 November 2013.


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