Donegal Boston GFC is a

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

club which was founded in 1988 in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. Boston is the second largest division of the GAA on the North American continent, after

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. They train on Malibu Beach, Dorchester. Among the club's former players are:

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (SFC) () is the premier inter-county competition in Gaelic football. County (Gaelic games), County teams compete against each other and the winner is declared All-Ireland Champions. Organised by the ...

winners

Diarmuid Connolly Diarmuid Connolly (born 7 July 1987) is an Irish Gaelic footballer. His league and championship career at senior level as a forward playing for the Dublin county team initially spanned 11 seasons from 2007 until 2018 when he left the panel afte ...

Jim McGuinness Jim McGuinness (born 16 November 1972) is a Gaelic football coach, and former player, who won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship as a player with, and later manager of, the Donegal county team. Since 2023, he has been manager, for ...

and Martin Penrose; All Stars

Kevin Cassidy Kevin Cassidy (born 1981) is an Irish-Scottish Gaelic footballer, businessperson, columnist and commentator. Though born in Glasgow, Scotland, he has been living in Gaoth Dobhair, County Donegal from a young age. Cassidy plays his club football ...

Dessie Dolan Dessie Dolan (born 11 July 1979) is an Irish Gaelic football manager who was manager of the senior Westmeath county team between 2022 and 2024. He played for the Garrycastle club and for the Westmeath county team, as well as international r ...

and John Lynch;

All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship The All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship is an annual Gaelic football tournament which began in season 1970–71. It is the top-tier competition for the senior football clubs of Ireland and London. The current champions are Cuala of D ...

winner Liam Silke;

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 ...

international rules football International rules football (; also known as international rules in Australia and compromise rules or Aussie rules in Ireland) is a team sport consisting of a hybrid of football codes, which was developed to facilitate international represe ...

ers Brendan Murphy and

Colm Parkinson Colm "Wooly" Parkinson (born 1978 in Meelick, Portlaoise) is a retired Irish Gaelic footballer, and journalist. Playing career Club Parkinson was a decorated underage player with Portlaoise, winning county titles at every underage grade before ...

; former

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

player

Ray Connellan Ray Connellan (born 29 June 1994) is an Irish former Australian rules footballer with the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League. He previously played Gaelic football with his local club Athlone Athlone (; ) is a town ...

History

Donegal Boston Gaelic Football Club is known as Donegal GFC or Donegal Boston for short. The club was founded in 1988 by Irish immigrants. They won the North American Intermediate Football Championship in 1995. New York county manager Seamus Sweeney, whose team nearly defeated

Galway Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...

in the 2010 Connacht Senior Football Championship, first became involved in U.S. football after emigrating to Boston as an 18-year-old in the early 1990s, and played for Donegal Boston. They won their first Boston Senior Football Championship title in 2002. In the 2002 final they scored a late goal from a 21-yard free. They won the Boston Junior Football Championship in 2005. In 2008, they won the Boston Junior Football Championship and were Boston Senior Football Championship finalists. They won the 2015 North-East Men's Senior Football Championship. They won the 2018 Boston Senior Football Championship. They did so with Dublin All-Ireland winner

, whose transfer stateside was covered by media nationally in Ireland. Connolly's unsuccessful effort to play for Donegal Boston again in 2019, when a minor problem with his ESTA could not be fixed before transfer deadline day, was again covered extensively by media nationally in Ireland. In 2019, Donegal Boston were seeking four consecutive championship titles. However, Aidan McEnespies defeated the club in that year's final.

Honours

* Boston Senior Football Championship: 2002, 2004, 2010, 2015, 2018 * Boston Junior Football Championship: 2005, 2008 * North American Senior Football Championship runner-up: 2002, 2003 * North American Intermediate Football Championship: 2005

Players

County players to have represented the club include the following: *

John Bingham John Armor Bingham (January 21, 1815 – March 19, 1900) was an American politician who served as a Republican representative from Ohio and as the United States ambassador to Japan. In his time as a congressman, Bingham served as both assis ...

(Louth) * Ciaran Bonner (Donegal, i.e. the

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

) * Declan Bonner (Donegal) * Michael Boyle (Donegal) *

Mark Bradley Mark Anthony Bradley (born January 29, 1982) is an American former professional football wide receiver and punt returner who played five seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Chicago Bears in the second round of ...

(Tyrone) *

Ryan Bradley Ryan Scott Bradley (born November 17, 1983) is an American former competitive Figure skating, figure skater. He is the 2008 Skate Canada International silver medalist, the 2009 Skate America bronze medalist, the 2011 United States Figure Skating ...

(Donegal) * Glen Burke (Tipperary) * Jamie Carr (Louth) * Michael Carroll (Donegal) * Shane Carthy (Dublin) *

(Donegal) *

Martin Caulfield Martin Caulfield is an Irish former Gaelic footballer who played for Na Rossa and the Donegal county team. He made a substitute appearance in Mickey Moran's first game in charge, a league victory at home to Offaly County Offaly (; ) is a ...

(Donegal) *

(Westmeath) *

(Dublin) * Eamonn Doherty (Donegal) *

(Westmeath) * Dermot Feely (Fermanagh) * Raymond Gallagher (Fermanagh) * John Gildea (Donegal) * David Glennon (Westmeath) * Denis Glennon (Westmeath) *

Cahir Healy Charles Everard Healy (2 December 1877 – 8 February 1970) was an Ireland, Irish politician. He was a leader of northern nationalists and a self-educated man who made major contributions to Ireland's political, cultural and literary heritage. ...

(Laois) * Rory Kavanagh (Donegal) * Barry John Keane (Kerry) * John Lynch (Tyrone) * Cormac McAdam (Fermanagh) * Johnny McCafferty (Donegal) *

(Donegal) *

Antoin McFadden Antoin McFadden (born 1989/1990) is an Irish Gaelic football coach and player who has played for St Michael's and the Donegal county team. Pronounced , his forename is derived from the name of Roman great antiquity origin. Playing career Mc ...

(Donegal) *

Eoin McHugh Eoin McHugh (born 1994/95) is an Irish Gaelic footballer who plays for CLG Chill Chartha, Cill Chartha and the Donegal county football team, Donegal county team. He is the only son of James McHugh (Gaelic footballer), James McHugh, a member of ...

(Donegal) * Kevin McMenamin (Donegal) * Paul Mannion (Dublin) * Emlyn Mulligan (Leitrim) * Brendan Murphy (Carlow) *

Ciarán Murtagh Ciarán Murtagh (born 1992) is a Gaelic footballer who plays for St Faithleach's and the Roscommon county team. A son of Andy and Breda Murtagh, he completed a degree in corporate law at NUI Galway before returning to his studies at Marino I ...

(Roscommon) * Paul Noone (Roscommon) *

(Laois) * Martin Penrose (Tyrone) * James Ruane (Donegal) * Keelan Sexton (Clare) * Liam Silke (Galway) * Matthew Smyth (Donegal) *

Adrian Sweeney Adrian Sweeney is an Irish former Gaelic footballer who played for Dungloe and the Donegal county team. Considered one of the finest forwards of his generation, he often played alongside Brendan Devenney for Donegal. Sweeney played for Doneg ...

(Donegal) * Eoin Waide (Donegal) * Declan Walsh (Donegal) * Peter Witherow (Donegal)

References

{{reflist Gaelic football in Massachusetts Gaelic football clubs in the United States