Liam Donoghue (born September 1974) is an Irish sportsperson who plays

hurling Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of p ...

with his local club

Clarinbridge Clarinbridge () is a village in south County Galway, Ireland. It is on the mouth of the Clarin River at the end of Dunbulcaun Bay, which is the easternmost part of Galway Bay. The placename is also spelled Clarenbridge. Notable people *Alexan ...

. He played on the

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...

senior inter-county team from 2003 until 2006.

Early life

Liam Donoghue was born in

County Galway "Righteousness and Justice" , anthem = () , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Galway.svg , map_caption = Location in Ireland , area_footnotes = , area_total_km2 = ...

in 1974. Educated at Killeeneen National School and Athenry Vocational School.

Playing career

Club

Donoghue plays his club

with

. He won numerous underage titles at club level, an All Ireland Minor medal in 1992 and was sub goalkeeper on the U-21 All Ireland winning team of 1993. Captained Clarinbridge in their inaugural Senior County Final appearance in 1997, and was man of the match when they won their first ever Galway Senior Hurling Championship title against Athenry in 2001. Later that year Donoghue won a

Connacht Connacht ( ; ga, Connachta or ), is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, Conmhaícne, and Delbhn ...

club hurling title, however, his side were defeated by Birr in the

All-Ireland All-Ireland (sometimes All-Island) refers to all of Ireland, as opposed to the separate jurisdictions of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. "All-Ireland" is most frequently used to refer to sporting teams or events for the entire islan ...

club final. All-Ireland glory finally arrived in 2011 when Clarinbridge won county and club All-Ireland honours, defeating Oloughlin Gaels on St. Patricks in Croke Park.

Inter-county

After his involvement in the successful minor and U-21 teams of the early 1990s, it was expected that he would be an automatic choice to join the Galway senior team. However, the goalkeeping position went to Morgan Darcy. Donoghue turned to

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

after this. He played with Kiltulla F.C. and helped the team reach the quarter-finals of 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 ...

. Over the course of the whole season Donoghue scored a remarkable forty goals. He later joined

Galway United Galway United Football Club (Irish language, Irish: ''Cumann Peile Ghaillimh Aontaithe'') is an List of association football clubs in the Republic of Ireland, Irish association football club based in Galway. They play in the League of Ireland Fi ...

and, although he never played in the

League of Ireland The League of Ireland ( ga, Sraith na hÉireann), together with the Football Association of Ireland, is one of the two main governing bodies responsible for organising association football in the Republic of Ireland. The term was originally us ...

, he regularly lined out in the Connacht Senior League. In 2001 Donoghue joined the Galway senior hurling panel, and was sub goalkeeper when Galway were defeated by Tipperary in the All Ireland Final of that year. In 2003 Donoghue returned to the Galway senior team as the first-choice goalkeeper. Won a National League Title in 2004, and was appointed captain in 2005, steering his native-county to an

final showdown with

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

, however, Galway lost the game by four points. He was named team captain again for the 2006 team. In 2007 Donoghue was dropped from the Galway panel by the new manager,

Ger Loughnane Gerard "Ger" Loughnane (born 27 January 1953) is an Irish retired hurler who played as a right wing-back for the Clare senior team. Born in Feakle, County Clare, Loughnane first played competitive hurling whilst at school in St. Flannan's Coll ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Donoghue, Liam 1974 births Living people Clarinbridge hurlers Galway inter-county hurlers Connacht inter-provincial hurlers Hurling goalkeepers Galway United F.C. (1937–2011) players Association footballers from County Galway Republic of Ireland association footballers Association footballers not categorized by position