O' Donnell Park () is a

GAA Gaa may refer to: * Gaa language, a language of Nigeria * gaa, the ISO 639 code for the Ga language of Ghana GAA may stand for: Compounds * Glacial (water-free), acetic acid * Acid alpha-glucosidase, also known as glucosidase, alpha; acid, an e ...

stadium in

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

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

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

History

The ground has hosted

Gaelic games Gaelic games () are a set of sports played worldwide, though they are particularly popular in Ireland, where they originated. They include Gaelic football, hurling, Gaelic handball and rounders. Football and hurling, the most popular of the s ...

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 bi ...

'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-Irelan ...

and a football match between Donegal and

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

. During the

Fleadh Cheoil The Fleadh Cheoil (), or "music festival" in English, is an annual Ireland, Irish arts festival and competition run by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (Irish pronunciation: Help:IPA/Irish, [ˈkoːl̪ˠt̪ˠəsˠ ˈcoːl̪ˠt̪ˠoːɾʲiː ˈeːɾ ...

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 and members of Donegal's 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, 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 reduc ...

Nowlan Park Nowlan Park (; ), known for sponsorship reasons as 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 ...

Pearse Stadium Pearse Stadium () 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 used for games in the ...

and

Dr Hyde Park Dr. Hyde Park (''Páirc de hÍde'' in Irish language, Irish) is a Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) stadium in Roscommon, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Built in 1969 and officially opened in 1971, it is the home of the Roscommon county football ...

. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, 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) is a term used to describe organisations and events whose interests extend over the entire island of Ireland, as opposed to the separate jurisdictions of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. "All-Irelan ...

champions Kerry 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 gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

. 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 TG4 (; , ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television channel. It launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on-demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was initially known as (TnaG), before bein ...

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 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), Monaghan barony. The population of the town as of the 2022 cen ...

, 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