Early years Following the first Donegal County Board's formation in 1905, the county team's first football game was against
Derry on 17 March 1906. Donegal lost the 1933 "Home final" of the
1933 All-Ireland Junior Football Championship to
Mayo (2–15 to 2–2), and the team then made its next appearance at
Croke Park on Sunday 6 April 1952. The occasion was a
National Football League semi-final and the opponent that day was
Cork.
1960s The 1960s saw Donegal emerge as a well-known team, with many victories in that decade. However,
Down was also a force on the national stage, becoming the first team from the North to win All-Ireland SFC titles in
1960,
1961 and
1968. Donegal's first appearance in an
Ulster Senior Football Championship final was not until 1963, followed by a second appearance in 1966; Down won in both appearances. That was a vintage year for Donegal; in 1963,
Declan O'Carroll started in five Ulster finals in what went down as a "great year" for Donegal.
McEniff years 1970s–1980s: Ulster and Under-21 success The county came to the fore of Ulster football in the 1970s, winning its first Ulster SFC title in 1972. McEniff was player-manager of the 1972 team. McEniff returned as senior manager, and Donegal won a third provincial title in 1983, with ten members of the 1982 under-21 team included in the panel. Again though, Donegal lost to Galway in the
1983 All-Ireland SFC semi-final, ahead of what would become a notorious
1983 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final, known as the "Game of Shame". Tom Conaghan took over as senior manager from McEniff after McEniff departed again in the mid-1980s. Over the course of his time as senior manager during the 1980s, Conaghan fell out with players such as
Declan Bonner,
Manus Boyle,
Matt Gallagher,
Barry McGowan and
Sylvester Maguire.
P. J. McGowan managed the 1987 under-21 team.
1990s: Sam Maguire Cup McEniff returned as senior manager for a fourth time in September 1989. Donegal lost to eventual All-Ireland SFC finalist
Meath in the
1990 All-Ireland SFC semi-final. However, Donegal would win the Ulster SFC title again in 1992. As a result of this victory a
1992 All-Ireland SFC semi-final against
Mayo beckoned. Donegal overcame the men from Mayo to set up a
1992 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final meeting with raging-hot favourites
Dublin. Donegal's greatest footballing accomplishment yet was realised on 20 September 1992 when the senior team defeated the highly fancied Dublin, by a scoreline of 0–18 to 0–14, to take the
Sam Maguire Cup for the first time.
Brian McEniff, serving in his second spell as Donegal manager, pulled the strings. Man of the Match
Manus Boyle scored 0–9 (four from play), while
Gary Walsh pulled off a great save from Vinny Murphy at the end. This was the zenith of this great Donegal team which contested five successive Ulster SFC finals between 1989 and 1993. The Donegal team of this era also contested the final of the
National Football League three times in a four-year period (1993 v. Dublin, 1995 v. Derry, 1996 v. Derry) without success. McEniff soon stood down as manager.
Martin McHugh wanted to take charge of Donegal after McEniff left the job. However, he was prevented from doing so by the Donegal County Board in a snub that would be echoed in
Jim McGuinness's numerous later attempts to get the same job—McGuinness was, however, ultimately successful; after being rejected by the Donegal County Board on several occasions he would go on to be Donegal's most successful manager since McEniff. McHugh was hurt by his rejection, saying: "I thought there was another All-Ireland in Donegal and that's why I went for that job. I thought there was another All-Ireland there, and there was a lot of good players coming too. But anyway, that's the way it worked out". It was 1987 All-Ireland Under-21 Football Championship-winning manager P. J. McGowan took over from McEniff in 1994. He lasted till 1997.
Declan Bonner (first term): 1997–2000 Declan Bonner managed the team between 1997 and 2000. He began on his 32nd birthday, within four weeks of retirement. He was informed of the decision to appoint him at 9.29 pm on 11 August 1997, after
Anthony Molloy, past manager Conaghan and
Pauric McShea all withdrew. Bonner led Donegal to the
1997–98 National Football League semi-final against eventual title winners
Offaly and the 1998 Ulster SFC final against
Derry — a last-minute
Joe Brolly goal, accompanied by a few kisses to the crowd, put paid to that one. Moran's first game in charge was a league victory at home to
Offaly, a win achieved while fielding four debutants (
Stephen Cassidy,
Michael Doherty,
Barry Monaghan and ... one other?). During his tenure selector
Michael Houston quit after a public falling out with Moran. Moran's first year in charge of Donegal was a disappointing one, but 2002 was more successful, leading Donegal to the Ulster final (which the team lost to
Armagh), and then to the
2002 All-Ireland SFC quarter-final against Dublin. However, in September 2002, he informed the county board he would not be staying for the third year of the term. All-Ireland SFC winning manager Brian McEniff took the reins for the 2003 season. His first game back in charge, an away league fixture to
Galway in
Tuam in February 2003, ended in defeat. However, McEniff guided Donegal to the
2003 All-Ireland SFC semi-final, the first time the team had played at this stage of the competition since 1992. The following year, Donegal reached another Ulster SFC final, again losing out to Armagh. McEniff stepped down after the 2005 season, to end his fourth and final tenure with his county. scores a penalty in the
2008 Ulster Senior Football Championship Brian McIver was appointed manager in 2006. His tenure saw a slight improvement in the fortunes of the team, as he led Donegal into Division 1 of the National Football League. However, the county had been without a trophy for 15 years. The team had contested the 1993 and 1998 Ulster SFC finals, but lost to Derry on both occasions. Defeat to Armagh in the same contest in 2002, 2004 and 2006 meant another decade passed without a championship trophy. Donegal contested the 2006 Division 2 final, but lost to
Louth. The famine came to an abrupt end in 2007 when the senior football team won the National Football League title for the first time in the county's history. Donegal overcame
Mayo at
Croke Park on Sunday 22 April 2007, winning by a scoreline of 0–13 to 0–10. En route to the final, Donegal defeated Cork, Mayo, Tyrone, Dublin, Kerry, Fermanagh and Kildare, while drawing with Limerick. McIver stood down as manager after the 2007 championship; however, he was reinstated before the beginning of the 2008 championship. In 2008, at a county board meeting, a
motion of no confidence was tabled by the
St Eunan's and
Gaoth Dobhair clubs; as a result McIver felt compelled to resign.
Declan Bonner and
Charlie Mulgrew were appointed "Joint Managers" when
John Joe Doherty of the
Naomh Columba club was said to have rejected the opportunity to become manager. However, Doherty entered negotiations before Bonner and Mulgrew were rubber stamped. He was later offered the job for a second time, which he accepted. Bonner and Mulgrew had contested that the procedure which led to the installing of John Joe Doherty as football manager in the county was flawed. The duo's case was heard November 2008, but had taken 13 days of deliberation for the DRA to reach a verdict. John Joe Doherty was appointed manager at the November county board meeting. Bonner, Mulgrew and Doherty had been joined by
Michael Houston, Francie Martin and
Jim McGuinness on the shortlist to become manager. McGuinness had guided Donegal's under-21 team to the
2010 All-Ireland Under 21 Football Championship final. He was appointed to the senior management on a four-year term, with a review after two years. His first year in charge brought Donegal the National Football League Division 2 title, promotion to Division 1, the county's first championship win in four years, the county's first provincial title in 19 years, and made Donegal the third team in the history of the GAA to win a provincial title from the preliminary round. His second season brought a second consecutive provincial title, also achieved from the preliminary round, as well as a defeat of
Kerry at Croke Park and a win over
Cork on 26 August to secure a place in the 2012 All Ireland Football Final. In 2010, after a disappointing championship, in which Donegal lost at home to Down after
extra-time, and to Armagh in Crossmaglen by nine points in the first round of the All-Ireland SFC qualifiers, John Joe Doherty resigned from his post as senior football manager. The only candidate to replace him was
Jim McGuinness. Upon his appointment on 26 July 2010, McGuinness brought
Kevin Cassidy and
Michael Hegarty out of retirement, introduced many players from the under-21 side he had taken to the 2010 All-Ireland Under 21 Football Championship final, and introduced structure and discipline, a feature that many observers claimed was lacking in many talented Donegal teams between 1993 and 2011. McGuinness's first major success as senior manager was to win the National Football League Division 2, when Donegal defeated
Laois by a scoreline of 2–11 to 0–16 at Croke Park. Donegal went unbeaten through the league season, except for the last league match proper, a loss to Laois. Before the Division 2 Final, Donegal had topped the Division 2 league, and the team was guaranteed
promotion, having achieved four wins, two draws, and one loss. After this victory, expectations for the county were high, with many pundits predicting that Donegal would win the Ulster SFC title. Donegal faced
Antrim in the
2011 Ulster SFC preliminary round, winning that game by a scoreline of 1–10 to 0–7. This was the team's first championship win since 2007. This set up an away match against
Cavan, from which Donegal once again emerged victorious, by a scoreline of 2–14 to 1–8. A more ominous test against
Tyrone would follow this Cavan victory. The new defensive system developed by Jim McGuinness would be put to the test against a Tyrone team which had perfected the blanket defense tactic on the way to three All-Ireland SFC titles during the 2000s. Donegal fought their way to a 2–6 to a 0–9 win. This set up an Ulster SFC final meeting against a heavily fancied
Derry, which one week prior to Donegal's victory over Tyrone, put 3–14 past an Armagh team which had just overcome Down, the
2010 All-Ireland SFC runner-up. , won by Donegal On 17 July 2011, in
Clones, Donegal played in a first Ulster SFC final for five years, and a sixth Ulster SFC final since 1992. In front of a crowd of 28,364 Donegal beat Derry by 1–11 to 0–08 points. This was only the third time in the history of the Ulster SFC that a team which played in the preliminary round would win the final, following in the footsteps of
Armagh in 2005 and
Cavan 66 years earlier. On 30 July 2011, Donegal travelled to Croke Park to play
Kildare in the
2011 All-Ireland SFC quarter-final. In an absorbing contest, a
Kevin Cassidy point deep into
extra-time sealed Donegal's progression to a first All-Ireland SFC semi-final since 2003. The
semi-final against Dublin, which Dublin eventually won 0–8 to 0–6, was to be regarded as one of the lowest scoring but most absorbing championship duels in living memory. Then came the
2012 Ulster SFC. On 22 July 2012, Donegal retained the Ulster SFC title for the first time in history with a 2–18 to 0–13 victory over Down. On 5 August 2012, Donegal defeated
Kerry in the
2012 All-Ireland SFC quarter-final. The first ever championship meeting between the sides at senior level, it was only the second time in history that Kerry had been defeated at the quarter-final stage. Ahead of the next match against
Cork, few outside the county gave Donegal a chance, and Cork went into the game as heavy favourite to win the title itself (even though this was only the semi-final). Donegal endeavoured to swat aside a lacklustre Cork side with ease, and progressed to a first title decider since 1992. Tyrone's
Mickey Harte, attempting to analyse the game for the
BBC, expressed his shock: "To be honest, I could not see that coming. Donegal annihilated Cork, there is no other word for it." Martin McHugh, a member of the successful 1992 side, said it was the best ever performance by any Donegal team, including his own. Donegal then emerged victorious from the
2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final on 23 September 2012, to take the Sam Maguire Cup for a second time, with early goals from
Michael Murphy and
Colm McFadden ensuring that Mayo were never really in the contest. Donegal defeated Mayo, on a scoreline of 2–11 to 0–13. Man of the Match was awarded to Michael Murphy, who scored 1–4. The 2013 season brought great expectation, with Donegal beginning it as the reigning All-Ireland SFC title holder. However, the team suffered
relegation from Division 1 of the National Football League early in the year. In the
2013 Ulster SFC, Donegal dispatched Tyrone and Down to set up a provincial decider with
Monaghan. The Monaghan team was unfancied coming into the game, with most of the pressure on the shoulders of the Tír Conaill men. Despite this, Monaghan defied the odds and emerged as winner by a scoreline of 0–13 to 0–7. After defeating Laois in a
2013 All-Ireland SFC fourth round qualifier, Donegal faced a Mayo team looking for revenge in the All-Ireland SFC quarter-final. They got that revenge, and got it hard, with a 4–17 to 1–10 drubbing that ended Donegal's bid to retain the Sam Maguire. 2014 saw a resurgent Donegal claim promotion from Division 2 of the National League, alongside Monaghan. Donegal overcame Derry in a tense
2014 Ulster SFC quarter-final and Antrim in the Ulster SFC semi-final, to set up another Ulster SFC final clash with Monaghan. This time Donegal came out on top, by three points, to reclaim the Ulster SFC title. A meeting with Armagh beckoned in the
2014 All-Ireland SFC quarter-final. An
Odhrán Mac Niallais goal proved crucial, in a 1–12 to 1–11 win. This set up a daunting semi-final clash with 2013 All-Ireland SFC winner Dublin. At the time, this Dublin team was seen by many as unstoppable, and was heavy favourites for the clash with Donegal. Bookmakers had Donegal as low as 7/1 to win the game. However, after surviving a first half onslaught, a
Ryan McHugh goal gave Donegal the lead at
half-time. In the second half, Donegal swept Dublin aside, running out six-point winners, with McHugh and
Colm McFadden to the fore. Kerry provided the final opposition, and, despite Kerry's traditional dominance, Donegal went into the game as favourite after that semi-final defeat of Dublin. Kerry upset the form books though, to claim a 2–9 to 0–12 win, and a 37th All-Ireland SFC title. Jim McGuinness stepped down in the aftermath of the game, having led his county to three Ulster SFC titles and an All-Ireland SFC title in his four years at the helm. McGuinness won 83.33 per cent of his SFC matches during his first spell as Donegal manager (20 wins from 24 games); this included defeats, over a four-year period, of Armagh, Cavan, Cork, Derry, Dublin, Down, Kildare, Kerry, Mayo, Monaghan and Tyrone.
Between McGuinness: 2014–2023 McGuinness's former assistant
Rory Gallagher took over for the 2015 campaign, and the year began brightly with Donegal reaching the National League semi-final, losing out to Cork. Starting in the preliminary round of the
2015 Ulster SFC, Donegal defeated Tyrone, Armagh and Derry to set up a third successive Ulster SFC final, with now bitter rivals Monaghan. After winning tough games against Tyrone and Derry, Donegal would have been seen as the slight favourite going into the game. However, Monaghan prevailed by a single point, to consign Donegal to the
2015 All-Ireland SFC qualifiers.
Galway awaited Donegal there; Donegal put in an improved performance and won by a scoreline of 3–12 to 0–11. Donegal went in as the
underdog to an All-Ireland SFC quarter-final against Mayo. So it proved, as Mayo won by a comfortable seven-point margin, to end Donegal's hopes for another year. The
2016 season began with Donegal looking to reclaim the Ulster SFC title and make a serious assault on the All-Ireland SFC. The team again reached the semi-final of the National League, this time being defeated by Dublin. The team's
2016 Ulster SFC began with a tricky encounter against
Fermanagh at MacCumhaill Park, which Donegal eventually won by four points after going down to 14 men. The team faced familiar foe Monaghan in the Ulster SFC semi-final. After two intense games of football, Donegal won out to advance to a sixth successive Ulster SFC final, a feat only matched by the great Down side of the 1960s. Donegal would be up against
Mickey Harte's Tyrone, a team appearing in its first final since 2010. Two injury time points handed Tyrone a first provincial title since 2010, and again Donegal headed for the
2016 All-Ireland SFC qualifiers. However, the team continued its recent good form in the qualifiers with a three-point victory over Cork, with
Patrick McBrearty achieving an individual haul of 0–11. Leinster and All-Ireland SFC title holder Dublin awaited Donegal in the 2016 All-Ireland SFC quarter-final. Dublin avenged the 2014 semi-final defeat, winning a close contest by a scoreline of 1–15 to 1–10. They required a late
Paul Mannion goal to kill off the game and, with it, Donegal's championship aspirations for 2016. A
2017 Ulster SFC semi-final capitulation to Tyrone and
2017 All-Ireland SFC exit to Galway at
Markievicz Park and Gallagher was gone. Five contenders for the senior manager emerged: minor manager
Shaun Paul Barrett,
Declan Bonner,
Cathal Corey,
Gary McDaid and
Séamus McEnaney. Bonner was announced as manager on 22 September 2017, taking charge for a second time. Donegal won the
2018 Ulster SFC title. Senior players
Jason McGee and
Niall O'Donnell were not part of this one, as they decided to drop down to play with the under-20 team instead, between league and championship. Donegal won the
2019 Ulster SFC title. Bonner was reappointed for another two-year term as manager at the end of August 2021, when no other candidates emerged to succeed him. He left the role in mid-2022. Then long-time captain
Michael Murphy announced his retirement from inter-county football on 16 November 2022. Murphy's retirement, at the age of only 33, was unexpected. He released a statement via the county board. It was all going very, very wrong for Donegal.
McGuinness: The Second Coming Donegal went out of the 2023 All Ireland race in a preliminary quarter final defeat to Tyrone that June, an unequivocal deterioration in standards overseen by Aidan O'Rourke, who was assisted by
Paddy Bradley. O'Rourke was not cut out for the job at hand and was "clearly shaken" by the experience, according to the
Irish Independent. Captain McBrearty, by now the longest serving player since Murphy's retirement, took the lead. He had had enough. He managed to locate the whereabouts of McGuinness's house deep in northern Donegal, a long way from Kilcar on the southwest coast - the pair "hadn't seen each other in a long time", McBrearty admitted. McBrearty led a group of players on a march to get into the McGuinness house. They "doorstepped" McGuinness, attempting to get him off guard and to get him to return as manager of the team. The players did not know what to expect. Not even McBrearty, the one who knew him most of all, was sure. By McGuinness's account a total of five players "arrived" after that Tyrone defeat. They sat about and chatted for a bit. McBrearty, speaking later, reported that McGuinness "never said no basically... Obviously if he said no, that would have been fine. It wasn't just one conversation, there was a few conversations obviously". Within "a few days", feelers were put out to the other players as McGuinness tried to suss out whether he would be welcome as their manager or if they would be interested in taking instructions from someone like him. In August 2023, it began to be widely reported that Jim McGuinness would be returning as Donegal manager. On 20 August, Donegal GAA brought forward its monthly county board meeting to the following evening, where the only thng on the agenda was about appointing the new manager. Finally, on the evening of Monday the 21st of August, the return of McGuinness was confirmed in sensational fashion at that meeting, year one of three (with an option of a fourth) beginning pronto. It was big news the length and breadth of the sport throughout the island, with
James Horan's return to the Mayo fold that same evening having to settle for second place as Horan slipped in quietly amid all the fuss over McGuinness. So it was back to the hard road again for McGuinness, very much like in 2010 when he had first took over. For the
2024 season, McGuinness led Donegal to the
National Football League Division 2 title (and, with that, promotion to Division 1), the
Ulster SFC title and the
All-Ireland SFC semi-final, an exact replica of his first year (even with the exact same two-point defeat at the All-Ireland SFC semi-final stage). He did this without his All-Ireland SFC-winning captain Michael Murphy, who had, of course, retired from inter-county football. 2024 also notably saw Mickey Harte manage Derry to a heavy home defeat against Donegal in his only Ulster championship game as Derry manager. Donegal were able to carve out numerous goal opportunities due to Derry's tactics, but only managed to score four of them.
The Irish Times described the game as a "classic". The newspaper also named Donegal's first goal, scored with a lob into an empty net as Derry goalkeeper Odhrán Lynch ran back up the pitch after vacating his goal, as its "Moment of the Year". Harte left at the end of the season.
Michael Murphy returned from his self-imposed exile with the
2025 season about to get underway. For this one, McGuinness set about making a carbon copy of his second season, which would require him to retain the Ulster title and add the All-Ireland to it. He would end up dealing with Kerry and their manager Jack O’Connor in both (2012 All-Ireland Quarter-final and 2025 Final). In the early part of the year McGuinness realised his plan was in jeopardy: Donegal were running away with the
2025 NFL Division 1 title, a mistake which he had been so careful to avoid in 2012. So, McGuinness supposedly changed tack to ensure Donegal did not finish in the top two of the NFL and have an extra game in an already quite compact season (if it had been 2012 there would have been two extra games as there was a semi-final
that year). Many people (especially in the other three provinces) did not fully appreciate the danger involved in Donegal having to play the league final. But Donegal had an Ulster preliminary round date with Derry booked, so had a long season ahead if McGuinness's plan was to come to fruition. Even with the change of plan, Donegal had a narrow escape. At MacHale Park in the final game, Mayo player Eoin O'Donoghue fouled
Aaron Doherty and conceded a penalty. Mayo had only a two-point lead. If Donegal scored it, they were in danger of making the league final. After some uncertainty among the players over what to do, up stepped
Daire Ó Baoill with the clock showing 67 minutes of the 70 had been played. Ó Baoill had a bit of a soccer background and had fired home one of the penalties that had downed Armagh in the 2024 Ulster Final, so he knew many tricks of the trade. Instead of firing wide though, he opted to hit the target. Mayo goalkeeper Colm Reape fumbled and nearly let the ball in under him. Ó Baoill even had to run forward, as players do when there might be a rebound. But to the relief of everyone on both sides, Reape gathered and prevented the ball from going into the Mayo net. Shortly afterwards, with play continuing, a
Hugh McFadden attempt at a point rattled off the angle of post and crossbar and nearly went into the Mayo goal. It was another narrow escape. But soon the hooter sounded and Donegal had consigned Mayo to a league final (which they lost anyway). Donegal ultimately finished in fourth position, two positions below what would have caused them to qualify for further league play. This is exactly what happened in 2012 when Donegal also finished two positions below the league semi-final positions and, in 2012, one position above being relegated, such was the precision of McGuinness's planning that year. Donegal followed through their narrow escape from having to play in a league final by retaining the Ulster title, just as they had done in 2012, when McGuinness had his first go at managing Donegal. The All-Ireland turned out to be more like 2014 though. Ulster opposition accounted for in the quarter-final (Armagh first time round, Monaghan this time), then Leinster opposition dispatched in the semi-final (Dublin first time round, Meath this time, with Donegal scoring three goals in both semi-finals). But Donegal could only play what was put in front of them. McGuinness had no control over that. Then Munster opposition in the final and - ominously - it was to be Kerry, again. ==Supporters==