Declan Coulter (born 1987/8) is a hurler. He plays for Setanta, the Donegal county team and the Ireland national team. Coulter previously played for Cuchulainn's and the Armagh county team.

Playing career

Coulter made his inter-county debut for Armagh at the age of 17 in 2005. He won his first

Nicky Rackard Cup The Nicky Rackard Cup (; often referred to as the Rackard Cup) is the fourth tier of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship. Each year, the champion team in the Nicky Rackard Cup is promoted to the Christy Ring Cup, and the lowest finishing ...

in 2010. He won his second Nicky Rackard Cup with Armagh in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

, scoring 2–2 in the final against

Louth Louth may refer to: Australia *Hundred of Louth, a cadastral unit in South Australia * Louth, New South Wales, a town * Louth Bay, a bay in South Australia **Louth Bay, South Australia, a town and locality Canada * Louth, Ontario Ireland * Cou ...

. He continued to play for Armagh until 2016. Following a move to Donegal, Coulter began playing for Setanta with whom he won a

Donegal Senior Hurling Championship The Donegal Senior Hurling Championship is an annual hurling competition contested by top-tier Donegal GAA clubs. The County Final is usually played at O'Donnell Park in Letterkenny. Setanta are the title holders (2022) defeating Burt in the ...

and an

Ulster Junior Club Hurling Championship The Ulster Junior Club Hurling Championship is an annual hurling competition played between the best junior hurling clubs in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster in Ireland. The series of games are organised by the Gaelic Athletic Associat ...

in 2017, scoring 1–6 in the Ulster JCHC final against Na Magha. He won his second Donegal SHC in 2019, scoring 1–2 (including 1 free) in the final. Coulter began playing for Donegal in 2017. He played for Donegal during the

2018 National Hurling League The 2018 National Hurling League was the 87th season of the National Hurling League for county teams. Wexford finished top of Division 1B in 2017 and were promoted to Division 1A for 2018. Galway finished second in Division 1B in 2017 and so mis ...

, when the county recorded their first competitive victories over Derry and Down (he scored 1–1 in the comprehensive defeat of Derry and 0–2 in the three-point defeat of Down). Donegal also defeated Armagh in the closing game of that league campaign, with Coulter contributing 2–1 (including one penalty) to the three-point victory over his former side. Donegal went on to win the 2018 Nicky Rackard Cup, Coulter's first for Donegal and third overall, with Coulter scoring 1–10 (0–4 of which were frees, 0–1 of which was a '65) in the final, a seven-point victory for Donegal. The photograph is captioned: "Declan Coulter of Donegal celebrates with his daughter Lara, age 1, following the Nicky Rackard Cup Final match between Donegal and Warwickshire at Croke Park in Dublin". He was later named Nicky Rackard Hurler of the Year. He and fellow Donegal player Stephen Gillespie featured on the Nicky Rackard Team of the Year. Coulter was named as a replacement on the 2018 All-Star team for their game against the 2019 All-Star team in Abu Dhabi in November 2019. He put in a man of the match performance and scored 1–6 from play, despite not being an actual All-Star and being in the presence of hurlers from teams ranked above any across Ulster.

Martin Breheny use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , nationality = , other_names = , siglum = , citizenship = , ...

, in the '' Irish Independent'', wrote that Coulter, having outscored teammates of the calibre of

Séamus Harnedy Séamus Harnedy (born 17 July 1990) is an Irish hurler who plays for East Cork Championship club St Ita's, divisional side Imokilly and at inter-county level with the Cork senior hurling team. He usually lines out as a centre-forward. Playin ...

(Cork) and Graeme Mulcahy (Limerick), had "made a major statement on behalf of hurlers from lower-ranked counties". Coulter has expressed his support for the "Team Ulster" concept that would allow

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

to contest the

Liam MacCarthy Cup The Liam MacCarthy Cup is a trophy awarded annually by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) to the team that wins the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, the main competition in the prehistoric sport of hurling. Based on the design of a me ...

Personal life

Having spent several years living in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, Coulter settled in the Finn Valley area of

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconn ...

. He met Ciara Cullen from Donegal while representing

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in the Shinty-Hurling International Series in Dublin in 2006. Coulter later married her. Cullen is the sister of Donegal player

Danny Danny is a masculine given name. It is related to the male name Daniel. It may refer to: People * Danny Altmann, British immunologist *Danny Antonucci, Canadian animator, director, producer, and writer *Danny Baker (born 1957), English journal ...

. Coulter has since become a father. He has a son and a daughter.

Honours

;Armagh *

: 2010,

;Donegal *

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

;Setanta *

: 2017 *

: 2017, 2019 ;Individual * Nicky Rackard Hurler of the Year: 2018 * Nicky Rackard Team of the Year: 2018 * All-Stars Man of the Match, Abu Dhabi: 2019 * '' Donegal News'' Sports Personality winner: March 2020 Original print title was "Coulter collects league title in Carrickmore".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coulter, Declan 1980s births Living people Armagh inter-county hurlers Donegal inter-county hurlers Ireland international hurlers Irish schoolteachers Setanta hurlers