St Joseph's GFC (Donegal) explained

Club Gaa:St Joseph's
Irish:Naomh Iósaef
Founded:1963
Province:Ulster
County:Donegal
Grounds:Fr Tierney Park, Ballyshannon
Coordinates:54.4979°N -8.1913°W
Pattern La:_whiteborder
Pattern Ra:_whiteborder
Leftarm:FF0000
Body:FF0000
Rightarm:FF0000
Shorts:FFFFFF
Socks:FF0000
F2:1
F3:8

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

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... 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

Notes and References

  1. Book: Duggan, Keith. House of Pain: Through the Rooms of Mayo Football. 2 December 2011. Random House. 9781780574066. Google Books.
  2. Book: McRory, Séamus. All-Ireland Dream. 27 November 2017. Wolfhound Press. 9780863279362. Google Books.
  3. Web site: St. Joseph's remembered - Donegal Democrat . 20 March 2015 . 2 April 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150402152152/http://www.donegaldemocrat.ie/news/donegal-news/st-joseph-s-remembered-1-2360099 . dead .
  4. Web site: Aodh Ruadh CLG, Ballyshannon // History // One Hundred Years . John. Hughes. www.aodhruadh.org.
  5. News: Paddy. Heaney. The life of Brian. The Irish News. 25 November 2013. 25 November 2013.