O' Donnell Park ( ga, Páirc uí Dhomhnail) is a GAA stadium in

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 ...

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 ...

. The home ground of the St Eunan's club, it is situated between the Letterkenny Regional Sports and Leisure Complex and

Ballymacool Park Ballymacool Park ( ga, Páirc Bhaile Mhic Comhghaill) is a public park located in Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland. The park is located on the Glenties Road, not far from O'Donnell Park and the local sports complex. The park has an entranc ...

on the outskirts of the town. The

Donegal county football team The Donegal county football team ( ) represents Donegal in men's Gaelic football and is governed by Donegal GAA, the county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The team competes in the three major annual inter-county competitions; the All ...

uses O'Donnell Park as a venue for matches (as does the county hurling team).

History

The ground has hosted Gaelic games since the 1930s when the St Eunan's club bought the land for £300. The ground opened on Sunday 2 May 1937, with the

Bishop of Raphoe The Bishop of Raphoe ( ) is an episcopal title which takes its name after the town of Raphoe in County Donegal, Ireland. In the Roman Catholic Church it remains a separate title, but in the Church of Ireland it has been united with another bis ...

's blessing of the park, a hurling match between Donegal and Antrim, an address from GAA President

Bob O'Keeffe Robert O'Keeffe (16 August 1880 – 1949) was an Irish hurler who played for the Laois senior team. O'Keeffe was a regular member of the starting fifteen during the 1914 and 1915 championship campaigns. During that time he won one All-Irela ...

and a football match between Donegal and Armagh. During the

Fleadh Cheoil The Fleadh Cheoil (; meaning "festival of music") is an Irish music festival run by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (CCÉ), a non-profit organisation. The festival includes live music events as well as competition. Each year a single town or cit ...

na hÉireann 2006, the ground was used as a makeshift campsite for visitors to the town for the duration of the festival. On 11 November 2008, St Eunan's confirmed that it had completed the purchase of of land adjoining O'Donnell Park, which it intended to develop over the coming years into additional pitches for the club. The

Sam Maguire Cup The Sam Maguire Cup ( ga, Chorn Sam Mhic Uidhir), often referred to as Sam or The Sam , is a trophy awarded annually by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) to the team that wins the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, the main competiti ...

and members of Donegal's 2012 All-Ireland SFC winning team attended a world record attempt at O'Donnell Park on 29 September 2012. The O'Donnell Park pitch was "highly commended" at the 2019 National Pitch Awards, and finished in the top six alongside such stadiums as

Páirc Tailteann Páirc Tailteann () is a GAA stadium in Navan, County Meath, Ireland. It is the home of the Meath Gaelic football and Hurling teams. The ground has had a capacity of between 30,000 and 33,000, but following a safety audit in 2011 the GAA redu ...

Nowlan Park UPMC Nowlan Park (; ) is the principal Gaelic Athletic Association stadium in Kilkenny, Ireland. Named after James Nowlan (the longest serving President of the GAA), the stadium hosts major hurling matches and is home to the Kilkenny hurling te ...

Pearse Stadium Pearse Stadium ( ga, Páirc an Phiarsaigh) is the principal GAA stadium in Galway, Ireland. The Galway GAA Gaelic football and hurling teams use the stadium for their home games. The stadium, amongst others in the province of Connacht, is also ...

and

Dr Hyde Park Dr Hyde Park (''Páirc de hÍde'' in Irish) is a GAA stadium in Roscommon, Ireland. Built in 1969 and officially opened in 1971, it is the home of the Roscommon county football team, with Athleague being the traditional home for the Roscommon ...

. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, O'Donnell Park was used as a drive-through test centre.

County matches

Having formerly been a venue for football matches played by the Donegal county team, O'Donnell Park went unused for this purpose for three decades. On 25 March 2007, O'Donnell Park hosted its first inter-county football match since this hiatus, with Donegal defeating reigning

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 ...

champions

Kerry Kerry or Kerri may refer to: * Kerry (name), a given name and surname of Gaelic origin (including a list of people with the name) Places * Kerry, Queensland, Australia * County Kerry, Ireland ** Kerry Airport, an international airport in Count ...

by a scoreline of 1–15 to 0–13 in Division 1 (the top tier) of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

. There was a half-hour delay to the game after the Kerry team were unable to arrive on time due to fog at the airport. TG4 broadcast the match live to a national audience. Donegal followed up their victory by winning the 2007 National Football League title. Donegal have played the following league games at O'Donnell Park since then. NFL matches at the venue have tended to be competitive, with opponents finding it difficult to leave with full points if they do. 2014's 2–11 to 0–10 victory over Monaghan, an eight-point win, is Donegal's biggest victory at O'Donnell Park. It has also been used by the Donegal senior hurling team, for example in the

2020 Nicky Rackard Cup The 2020 Nicky Rackard Cup is the 16th staging of the Nicky Rackard Cup hurling championship since its establishment by the Gaelic Athletic Association in 2005. It is the fourth tier hurling as of 2020. Warwickshire were supposed to compete in ...

References

{{Letterkenny Buildings and structures in Letterkenny Donegal GAA venues Sport in Letterkenny

History

County matches

See also

References