Stephen McMenamin (born 1997/8) is an Irish

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

er who plays for Red Hughs and the Donegal county team.

Playing career

County senior manager

Rory Gallagher William Rory Gallagher ( ; 2 March 1948 – 14 June 1995) was an Irish guitarist, singer, songwriter, and producer. Due to his virtuosic playing, but relative lack of fame compared to some others, he has been referred to as "the greatest ...

called McMenamin up ahead of the 2016 season as one of twelve new recruits, alongside such players as Eoghan Bán Gallagher, Caolan McGonagle and Ciarán Thompson. Under the management of

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 tw ...

, McMenamin started the opening fixture of the 2018 National Football League against

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 ...

Killarney Killarney ( ; ga, Cill Airne , meaning 'church of sloes') is a town in County Kerry, southwestern Ireland. The town is on the northeastern shore of Lough Leane, part of Killarney National Park, and is home to St Mary's Cathedral, Ross Castl ...

. He also started the next game against

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 ...

. He also started the fourth and fifth games, against

Kildare Kildare () is a town in County Kildare, Ireland. , its population was 8,634 making it the 7th largest town in County Kildare. The town lies on the R445, some west of Dublin – near enough for it to have become, despite being a regional cen ...

and Tyrone respectively. McMenamin started the

2018 Ulster Senior Football Championship The 2018 Ulster Senior Football Championship was the 130th instalment of the annual Ulster Senior Football Championship organised by Ulster GAA. It is one of the four provincial competitions of the 2018 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. T ...

final as Donegal defeated

Fermanagh Historically, Fermanagh ( ga, Fir Manach), as opposed to the modern County Fermanagh, was a kingdom of Gaelic Ireland, associated geographically with present-day County Fermanagh. ''Fir Manach'' originally referred to a distinct kin group of a ...

. He had previously started the preliminary round against

Cavan Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road that links Dublin (to the south) with Enniskillen, Bally ...

, and made substitute appearances in the quarter-final against

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

and the semi-final against Down, scoring a point in the semi-final. McMenamin made a late substitute appearance against Clare in the opening fixture of the 2019 National Football League in

Ennis Ennis () is the county town of County Clare, in the mid-west of Ireland. The town lies on the River Fergus, north of where the river widens and enters the Shannon Estuary. Ennis is the largest town in County Clare, with a population of 25,27 ...

. He made a substitute appearance in the next fixture against Meath. He started the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh fixtures against

Tipperary Tipperary is the name of: Places *County Tipperary, a county in Ireland **North Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Nenagh **South Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Clonmel *Tipperary (town), County Tipperary's na ...

, Fermanagh,

Armagh Armagh ( ; ga, Ard Mhacha, , "Macha's height") is the county town of County Armagh and a city in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Pri ...

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 ...

and Kildare. Donegal qualified for the National Football League Division 2 final and McMenamin started the game as Donegal defeated Meath to win the title. McMenamin started each game of the

2019 Ulster Senior Football Championship The 2019 Ulster Senior Football Championship is the 131st instalment of the annual Ulster Senior Football Championship organised by Ulster GAA. It is one of the four provincial competitions of the 2019 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. T ...

and scored a point in the semi-final, as Donegal defeated Fermanagh in the quarter-final, Tyrone in the semi-final and Cavan in the final. An unsavoury incident during the 2019 semi-final led to McMenamin being assaulted by Tyrone player

Tiernan McCann Tiernan McCann (born 24 May 1991) is an Gaelic footballer who plays for the Killyclogher St Mary's club and the Tyrone county team. In the 2015 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship victory over Monaghan on 8 August at Croke Park C ...

. The assault took the form of an act of

fish-hooking Fish-hooking is the act of inserting a finger or fingers of one or both hands into the mouth, nostrils or other orifices of a person, and pulling away from the centerline of the body; in most cases with the intention of pulling, tearing, or lacer ...

. McMenamin's sight was affected by the incident. McCann put his hands into McMenamin's mouth and then stamped on his neck; analysts on ''

The Sunday Game ''The Sunday Game'' is RTÉ's main Gaelic games television programme. It is shown on RTÉ2 every Sunday during the Football Championship and Hurling Championship seasons. It is one of RTÉ2's longest-running shows, having been on air since 197 ...

'', such as

Tomás Ó Sé Tomás Ó Sé (; born 21 June 1978) is an Irish former Gaelic footballer. He played Gaelic football with Nemo Rangers and at senior level for the Kerry county team from 1998 until he retired in 2013, playing predominantly in the half-back line ...

and

Ciarán Whelan Ciarán Whelan (born 28 February 1976 in Raheny, County Dublin) is a Gaelic footballer who plays for the Raheny club and, formerly, for the Dublin county team. He is right-footed but can kick with both feet and usually plays in midfield. He wa ...

, described the assault on McMenamin as "despicable" and "disgusting". McCann was given a two-match ban. McMenamin did not feature in any of Donegal's first five fixtures of the 2020 National Football League against

Mayo Mayo often refers to: * Mayonnaise, often shortened to "mayo" * Mayo Clinic, a medical center in Rochester, Minnesota, United States Mayo may also refer to: Places Antarctica * Mayo Peak, Marie Byrd Land Australia * Division of Mayo, an Aust ...

, Meath, Galway,

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

and

Monaghan Monaghan ( ; ) is the county town of County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It also provides the name of its Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish and Monaghan (barony), barony. The population of the town as of the 2016 census was 7 ...

. Then 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 identif ...

brought play to a halt. Play resumed behind closed doors on 18 October with a home game against Tyrone; McMenamin started that game and scored three points. He also started the last league game away to Kerry. McMenamin started and completed the 2020 Ulster Senior Football Championship quarter-final victory against Tyrone, the following week. He then exited the semi-final victory against Armagh in the opening minutes with a

hamstring In human anatomy, a hamstring () is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in between the hip and the knee (from medial to lateral: semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris). The hamstrings are susceptible to injury. In quadrupeds, ...

injury and, consequently, missed the final. McMenamin did not feature in Donegal's first of four fixtures of the 2021 National Football League, against Tyrone, made a substitute appearance against Monaghan and started the last two games, against Armagh and Dublin. In the 2021 Ulster Senior Football Championship, he started the first and second of Donegal's three fixtures against Down in the opening round and against Derry in the quarter-final, before making an early substitute appearance for the injured

Neil McGee Neil McGee (born 13 November 1985) is an Irish Gaelic footballer who plays for Gaoth Dobhair and, formerly, both the Donegal county team and the Ireland international rules football team. From Gweedore in County Donegal, he won three All St ...

against Tyrone in the semi-final.

Honours

;Player *

Ulster Senior Football Championship The Ulster Senior Football Championship is an inter-county competition for Gaelic football teams in the province of Ulster. It is organised by the Ulster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and begins in early May. The final is usu ...

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 United ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

* National Football League Division 2:

;Individual * All Star: 0 **Nominated in 2019

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McMenamin, Stephen 1990s births Living people Donegal inter-county Gaelic footballers Gaelic football backs