Bonagee United Football Club is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club from Ireland currently competing in the Ulster Senior League. The club are based in Letterkenny. Bonagee United play their home games at Dry Arch Park. The club hosts a number of teams at different age ranges.

History

Bonagee United were formed on 2 November 1970 in the Continental Bar, now called Voodoo, on Letterkenny's Main Street. In 1971, the club purchased 1 hectare (2.5 acres) of land behind the Dry Arch for £1000. They were originally known as Arcade Athletic. In 1973, Athletic became Bonagee Celtic and then in 1975 Bonagee United. A development programme was drawn up in 1998 and gave the club an all-weather playing pitch and a spectator stand. A general purpose hall, two

AstroTurf AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Since the early 2000s, AstroTurf has m ...

pitches with floodlights, extra dressing rooms, a store and office have also been added. Today the facilities amount to €973,000, for which they received a grant of €360,000. Money was raised by generous locals and the then Minister for Sport,

Jim McDaid James Joseph McDaid (born 3 October 1949) is a former Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Donegal North-East constituency from June 1989 until he resigned in November 2010. He also served as Minister for Tou ...

. The club won their first Ulster Senior League Division One title in 2009.

Famous lawsuit

On 3 October 1993 former Bonagee footballer

Dessie Larkin Dessie Larkin (c. 1970 – 18 March 2019) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He was a member of Donegal County Council representing the Letterkenny electoral area from 1999 to 2014. He served as the County Council's chair of the Planning & Ec ...

incurred severe burns to his scrotum as he rubbed it over the lime used to mark the football pitch. 13 years later Larkin sued the Football Association of Ireland. Bonagee were participating in the

FAI Junior Cup The FAI Junior Cup is a cup competition organized by the Football Association of Ireland for junior association football clubs from the Republic of Ireland. The inaugural winners were Brideville. The competition's most successful club is Fairvi ...

at the time. Larkin recalled how there was no changing or showering facilities available and when he removed his football shorts, he noticed some form of "white stuff" on the interior of his shorts and his skin was also inflamed and falling off. The judge was told that there were no instructions from the FAI as to the amount of lime and water that should have been in the mix. The judge awarded Larkin €9000 and stated that the onus was on the FAI to ensure that players be warned to take precautions to prevent the incident from happening.

FAI Cup v Shelbourne

Damien Duff Damien Anthony Duff (born 2 March 1979) is an Irish professional football manager and former player who played predominantly as a winger. He has been the manager of League of Ireland club Shelbourne F.C. since November 2021. He began his prof ...

was manager for the game in Letterkenny.FAI Cup wrap: Afolabi off the mark for Bohs, Shels ease past Bonagee
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References

{{Letterkenny 1970 establishments in Ireland Association football clubs established in 1970 Association football clubs in County Donegal Organisations based in Letterkenny Sport in Letterkenny Ulster Senior League (association football) teams