TRIBUTES HAVE BEEN PAID to former Donegal footballer Donal Monaghan, who passed away yesterday following an illness.
The Four Masters clubman was an All-Star winner in 1974 and played at right corner-back in the Ulster SFC-winning Donegal teams of 1972 and 1974.
Picture caption: Donal Monaghan (third from left, back row) with the Donegal team that won the Ulster SFC in 1972.
He was Man of the Match in the 1974 Ulster final replay win over Down and travelled to America that year with the All-Stars.
He played in the 1965 Ulster Minor final for Donegal, a game they lost to Derry, and he made his senior debut in October 1967 against Fermanagh, with his first Ulster SFC appearance coming in the 1970 defeat to Antrim in Ballybofey.
He made 72 appearances for Donegal, only 15 of them in the Championship and his last game was in 1977 against Derry.
Monaghan played for Ulster in the Railway Cup and he won the Donegal SFC with Four Masters in 1982 when they defeated Kilcar in the final, while he was a member of the management team for the Donegal Under-21 side that won the All-Ireland in ’82.
His son Barry made 117 appearances for Donegal.
“A sad loss for Donegal football,” said the Donegal County Board Chairman, Sean Dunnion, a club colleague of the late Mr Monaghan at Four Masters.
“He was a great Four Masters player and a great Donegal player. Donal always played with distinction. I’m lucky enough to remember him playing – he was a hero of mine growing up in Donegal town.”
The late Mr Monaghan, of Ardeskin, Donegal town, died at Letterkenny University Hospital yesterday. He is survived by his wife Margaret, sons Don, Barry and Marcus, sister Madeline (Griffin) daughter-in-law Paula and grandchildren.
Funeral Mass is on Wednesday at 11am in St Patrick’s Church, Donegal town with burial afterwards in St Agatha’s Cemetary, Clar.
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