Donegal Boston GFC is a Gaelic football club which was founded in 1988 in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

. Boston is the second largest division of the GAA on the North American continent, after New York. They train on Malibu Beach, Dorchester. Among the club's former players are:

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (SFC) ( ga, Craobh Shinsir Peile na hÉireann) is the premier competition in Gaelic football. An annual tournament organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), it is contested by the county ...

winners

Diarmuid Connolly Diarmuid Connolly (born 7 July 1987) is an Irish Gaelic footballer. His National Football League (Ireland), league and All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, championship career at senior level as a forward playing for the Dublin county footb ...

Jim McGuinness Jim McGuinness (born 16 November 1972) is an association football coach and former Gaelic footballer, coach and manager, who won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship as both player and manager with the Donegal county team. Having gu ...

and Martin Penrose; All Stars

Kevin Cassidy Kevin Cassidy (born 1981) is an Irish-Scottish Gaelic footballer, businessperson, columnist and commentator. Though born in Glasgow, Scotland, he has been living in Gaoth Dobhair, County Donegal from a young age. Cassidy plays his club footbal ...

Dessie Dolan Dessie Dolan (born 11 July 1979) is an Irish Gaelic football manager who has been manager of the senior Westmeath county team since 2022. He played for the Garrycastle club and for the Westmeath county team, as well as international rules foo ...

and John Lynch;

All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship The All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football tournament which began in season 1970–71. It is the top-tier competition for the senior football clubs of Ireland and London. The current champions are Kilcoo of ...

winner Liam Silke;

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 ...

international rules football International rules football ( ga, Peil na rialacha idirnáisiunta; also known as international rules in Australia and compromise rules or Aussie rules in Ireland) is a team sport consisting of a hybrid of football codes, which was developed ...

ers Brendan Murphy and

Colm Parkinson Colm "Wooly" Parkinson (born 1978 in Meelick, Portlaoise) is a retired Irish Gaelic footballer, and journalist. Playing career Club Parkinson was a decorated underage player with Portlaoise, winning county titles at every underage grade before ...

; former Australian Football League player

Ray Connellan Ray Connellan (born 29 June 1994) is an Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name ...

History

Donegal Boston Gaelic Football Club is known as Donegal GFC or Donegal Boston for short. The club was founded in 1988 by Irish immigrants. They won the North American Intermediate Football Championship in 1995. New York county manager Seamus Sweeney, whose team nearly defeated

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a city in the West of Ireland, in the province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay, and is the sixth most populous city on ...

in the

2010 Connacht Senior Football Championship The 2010 Connacht Senior Football Championship was that year's installment of the annual Connacht Senior Football Championship held under the auspices of the Connacht GAA. It was won by Roscommon who defeated Sligo in the final. This was Roscommo ...

, first became involved in U.S. football after emigrating to Boston as an 18-year-old in the early 1990s, and played for Donegal Boston. They won their first Boston Senior Football Championship title in 2002. In the 2002 final they scored a late goal from a 21-yard free. They won the Boston Junior Football Championship in 2005. In 2008, they won the Boston Junior Football Championship and were Boston Senior Football Championship finalists. They won the 2015 North-East Men's Senior Football Championship. They won the 2018 Boston Senior Football Championship. They did so with Dublin All-Ireland winner

, whose transfer stateside was covered by media nationally in Ireland. Connolly's unsuccessful effort to play for Donegal Boston again in 2019, when a minor problem with his ESTA could not be fixed before transfer deadline day, was again covered extensively by media nationally in Ireland. In 2019, Donegal Boston were seeking four consecutive championship titles. However, Aidan McEnespies defeated the club in that year's final.

Honours

* Boston Senior Football Championship: 2002, 2004, 2010, 2015, 2018 * Boston Junior Football Championship: 2005, 2008 *

North American Senior Football Championship The USGAA Senior Football Championship is a competition run by USGAA between Gaelic football teams from various cities in the United States. The 2017 finals were held in San Francisco. Roll of Honor {, class="wikitable" , - ! style="background:wh ...

runner-up: 2002, 2003 * North American Intermediate Football Championship: 2005

Players

County players to have represented the club include the following: *

John Bingham John Armor Bingham (January 21, 1815 – March 19, 1900) was an American politician who served as a Republican Party (United States), Republican representative from Ohio and as the United States ambassador to Japan. In his time as a congress ...

(Louth) * Ciaran Bonner (Donegal, i.e. the

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

) *

Declan Bonner Declan Bonner (born 11 August 1965) is an Irish Gaelic footballer and manager. He played at senior level for the Donegal county team, winning an All-Ireland Senior Football Championship in 1992. He later managed the Donegal county team for ...

(Donegal) * Michael Boyle (Donegal) *

Mark Bradley Mark Anthony Bradley (born January 29, 1982) is a former American football wide receiver and punt returner who played five seasons in the National Football League. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the second round of the 2005 NFL Draft. ...

(Tyrone) *

Ryan Bradley Ryan Scott Bradley (born November 17, 1983) is an American former competitive figure skater. He is the 2008 Skate Canada International silver medalist, the 2009 Skate America bronze medalist, the 2011 U.S. national champion, and a three-time U ...

(Donegal) *

Glen Burke Glen Burke is an Irish Gaelic footballer who plays for Fethard and the Tipperary county team. He also played for Donegal Boston. References Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Donegal Boston Gaelic footballers Fetha ...

(Tipperary) * Jamie Carr (Louth) * Michael Carroll (Donegal) * Shane Carthy (Dublin) *

(Donegal) * Martin Caulfield (Donegal) *

(Westmeath) *

(Dublin) * Eamonn Doherty (Donegal) *

(Westmeath) * Dermot Feely (Fermanagh) * Raymond Gallagher (Fermanagh) * John Gildea (Donegal) * David Glennon (Westmeath) * Denis Glennon (Westmeath) *

Cahir Healy Cahir Healy (2 December 1877 – 8 February 1970) was an Irish politician. Background Born in Mountcharles in County Donegal, he became a journalist working on various local papers. He joined Sinn Féin on its foundation in 1905. He later cam ...

(Laois) *

Rory Kavanagh Rory Kavanagh ( ga, Ruairí Ó Caomhánach; born 23 August 1982) is an Irish Gaelic football manager and former player with St Eunan's and the Donegal county team. He currently manages the St Eunan's club. Alongside Colm McFadden and Christy ...

(Donegal) *

Barry John Keane Barry John Keane (born 1 May 1990) is an Irish Gaelic footballer with Kerry GAA and has played with them at minor Under 21 and senior level. He is the grandson of the famous former Kerry player John Dowling. He plays with the Kerins O'Rahil ...

(Kerry) * John Lynch (Tyrone) *

Cormac McAdam Cormac McAdam (born December 1968) is a former Gaelic footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Lisnaskea Emmetts and the Fermanagh county team. Nicknamed "Cat", he captained his county to an All-Ireland B Football Championship in 1996. ''The ...

(Fermanagh) * Johnny McCafferty (Donegal) *

(Donegal) * Antoin McFadden (Donegal) * Eoin McHugh (Donegal) * Kevin McMenamin (Donegal) *

Paul Mannion Paul Mannion (born 25 May 1993) is an Irish Gaelic footballer who plays for the Kilmacud Crokes club and, since 2013, at senior level for the Dublin county team. He transferred to Donegal Boston in 2022. Personal He studied International Com ...

(Dublin) *

Emlyn Mulligan Emlyn Mulligan is a Gaelic footballer from County Leitrim who plays for the Sligo based St Mary's club and formerly for the Leitrim county team. A top class free-taker, he scored 1–34 in the 2008 National Football League. The high point of ...

(Leitrim) * Brendan Murphy (Carlow) *

Ciarán Murtagh Ciarán Murtagh (born 1992) is a Gaelic footballer who plays for St Faithleach's and the Roscommon county team. A son of Andy and Breda Murtagh, he completed a degree in corporate law at NUI Galway before returning to his studies at Marino I ...

(Roscommon) * Paul Noone (Roscommon) *

(Laois) * Martin Penrose (Tyrone) * James Ruane (Donegal) * Keelan Sexton (Clare) * Liam Silke (Galway) * Matthew Smyth (Donegal) * Adrian Sweeney (Donegal) * Eoin Waide (Donegal) * Declan Walsh (Donegal) * Peter Witherow (Donegal)

References

{{reflist Gaelic football in Massachusetts Gaelic football clubs in the United States