The ''Donegal News'' (also known as ''Derry People/Donegal News'' and formerly ''Derry People'') is a twice-weekly local newspaper in the northwest of the island of Ireland, first published in 1902. Originally covering

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, it moved across the border to

Letterkenny Letterkenny ( , meaning "hillside of the O'Cannons"), nicknamed the Cathedral Town, is a large town in County Donegal, Ireland, on the River Swilly in the north-west of Ulster. Along with the nearby city of Derry, Letterkenny is a regional eco ...

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 ...

, at the beginning of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and took on more of a Donegal focus. It is owned by the

North West of Ireland Printing and Publishing Company The North West of Ireland Printing and Publishing Company (NWIPP) is a family-owned newspaper group based in the Irish province of Ulster, both in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The company was established in 1901 by the Lynch fa ...

, which was established in 1901 by the Lynch family, who also own several other papers in the region including the '' Ulster Herald'', ''

Fermanagh Herald The ''Fermanagh Herald'' is a weekly newspaper published and sold mainly in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Irel ...

'', '' Strabane Chronicle'', ''

Tyrone Herald The ''Tyrone Daily Herald'' is an American daily newspaper serving Tyrone, Pennsylvania, and region – northern Blair County, Pennsylvania, Blair County and nearby portions of Centre County, Pennsylvania, Centre and Huntingdon County, Pennsylvan ...

'', and ''

Gaelic Life ''Gaelic Life'' is a Gaelic games newspaper. It has been published since 2007. As a weekly publication, it appears Thursdays. Though it offers coverage primarily of Gaelic games in the province of Ulster, it circulates through the other three pr ...

''. Its main competitors are the ''

Donegal Democrat The ''Donegal Democrat'' is a twice-weekly local newspaper, covering County Donegal, Ireland. The paper was traditionally based in the town of Ballyshannon in the south of the county, but now has offices in Donegal Town (southern edition) and Le ...

'' and ''

Derry Journal The ''Derry Journal'' is a newspaper based in Derry, Northern Ireland, serving Derry as well as County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland. It is operated by National World. The paper is published on Tuesday and Friday and is a sister paper of ...

''. The paper, despite a "rebranding" several years ago, continues to be known, for short, locally across the northern half of County Donegal as the ''Derry People''. Its two editions had a circulation of 15,467 for the first half of 2010, with the Friday edition accounting for most of the figure.

History

The paper was first published in

in 1903, but at the start of the Second World War, the paper's owners decided to move production across the border to

, County Donegal, in an aim to avoid possible harsh censorship laws, which saw the paper's rival, the ''Derry Journal'', being banned for a short time on both sides of the border. The paper has always had a nationalist editorial policy and so was able to attract readers from both County Donegal and the mostly nationalist city of Derry. The paper became the first to be based in Letterkenny and after the war had ended, it decided to keep production in

the Republic A republic is a form of government. Republic(s) or The Republic may also refer to: Governments * List of republics * First Republic (disambiguation) * Second Republic (disambiguation) * Third Republic (disambiguation) * Fourth Republic (disa ...

and gradually began to focus more on northern Donegal rather than its original Derry base. Derry has always been an important centre of employment for the north of Donegal with many Donegal families also moving across the border, which led to papers such as the ''Derry Journal'' and the ''Derry People'', building up a loyal readership in both jurisdictions. Throughout its history, the paper has remained under the control of the Lynch family, whose North West of Ireland Printing and Publishing Company is the largest newspaper group in Ireland still family controlled. As of 2020, it had not missed publication since its foundation in 1903.

Monday edition

The Monday edition was launched in November 2006 and is first paper in the County with all the weekend news and sport.

Layout

In 2002 the paper was renamed as the ''Donegal News'', with the ''Derry People'' title kept in the masthead, and was part of a wider re-launch of the paper that saw an overhaul of its layout. However, despite the 'rebranding', the paper continues to be known locally, for short, as ''The Derry People''. On 18 October 2008 the Friday edition of the paper went tabloid. The change followed extensive surveys which returned a massive thumbs-up for a smaller paper. New farming, business and fashion columns were introduced. Also included are pull-outs devoted to local notes and entertainment. In keeping with the paper's proud and close association with Letterkenny, The Letterkenny Notes remained on page two of the newspaper. The sports section is now located at the back of the paper.

Content

As part of the paper's re-start in 2002, a new layout was introduced which increased the number of pages of the publication, as well as the number of these in colour. The ''Donegal News'' mainly reports on local events and local sport, as well as devoting space to ''"local notes"'', where unpaid correspondents submit reports on births, deaths and marriages in their particular town. In the Friday edition, a number of regular features are also carried, such as "Friday Talk" and "The Last Corncrake", as well as a column in the Irish language, "Scéal Eile". The Friday edition also carries a weekly lifestyle supplement called "DN", with regular columns relating to television, cinema, travel, health and local entertainment. The Monday edition of the newspaper features a comic strip, ''Donegal Danny'', by Johnny Schumann and Sean Feeny while "People Like You" features an interview with a local celebrity. Both editions of the paper are made available on-line as paid-for 'e-books', while the "DN" supplement is made available free of charge.

Circulation

According to ABC, the average circulation of ''Donegal News'' Monday was 4,221 for the period July 2012 to December 2012, this represented an increase of 4% on a year-on-year basis. The average circulation of ''Donegal News'' Friday was 10.861 for the period July 2012 to December 2012, this represented a decrease of 3% on a year-on-year basis.

Sports Personality of the Month

The ''Donegal News'' Sports Personality of the Month is a monthly prize presented by the ''Donegal News'' to a person who has excelled in the performance of their chosen sport. It is run in conjunction with Brian McCormick Sports. Sports represented include

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 ...

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

motorcycling Motorcycling is the act of riding a motorcycle. For some people, motorcycling may be the only affordable form of individual motorized transportation, and small-engine displacement, displacement motorcycles are the most common motor vehicle in ...

motorsport Motorsport or motor sport are sporting events, competitions and related activities that primarily involve the use of Car, automobiles, motorcycles, motorboats and Aircraft, powered aircraft. For each of these vehicle types, the more specific term ...

, and

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

. Olympic athletes honoured include

Brendan Boyce Brendan Boyce (born 15 October 1986) is an Ireland, Irish race walking, race walker. He competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's 50 kilometres walk, 50k walk, coming 29th, and the 2013 World Ch ...

, Mark English and

Caitriona Jennings Caitriona Jennings (born 17 June 1980; from Letterkenny, County Donegal) is an Irish Long-distance track event, long distance runner who competed in the marathon at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. Early life Jennings atten ...

. Gaelic footballers honoured include the

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 ...

-winning players Neil Gallagher,

Rory Kavanagh Rory Kavanagh (; born 23 August 1982) is an Irish Gaelic football manager and former player with St Eunan's and the Donegal county team. He was manager of St Eunan's from November 2020 until the end of the 2023 championship. He currently mana ...

Karl Lacey Karl Lacey (born 10 September 1984) is an Irish Gaelic football coach, manager and former player for Four Masters and the Donegal county team. His county's most decorated individual player, his personal achievements include four All Star awar ...

Patrick McBrearty Patrick McBrearty (born 5 August 1993) is an Irish Gaelic footballer who plays for CLG Chill Chartha, Cill Chartha and the Donegal county football team, Donegal county team, which he has captained since 2023. He is usually selected in the full ...

, Frank McGlynn, as well as team captain Michael Murphy and manager

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 ...

2012

* January: Paddy Peoples (association football centre back) * February:

Danny Mooney Danny is a masculine given name. It is related to and short for the male name Daniel.🖾🖾 People *Danny Altmann, British immunologist *Danny Antonucci, Canadian animator, director, producer, and writer *Danny Baker (born 1957), English jou ...

(athletics) * March: Michael Gallagher (boxing) * April:

(athletics) * May: Mark English (athletics) * June: Frank McGlynn (Gaelic football) * July:

(Gaelic football

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

) * August: Neil Gallagher (Gaelic football midfielder) * September: Michael Murphy (Gaelic football

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

) * October: Brett McGinty (boxing) * November: ? * December:

Jason Quigley Jason Quigley is an Australian rules football field umpire in the Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was origi ...

(boxing)

2013

* January: ? * February: ? * March: ? * April: ? * May:

(Gaelic football forward) * June:

(boxing) * July: Mark English (athletics) * August:

(race walking) * September: ? * October:

(Gaelic football) * November: Gary McDaid (Gaelic football) * December: ? Caitriona Jennings

2014

* January: ? * February: Aaron McGlynn (athletics) * March: ? * April: Eamonn Sheridan (association football) * May:

(Gaelic football) * June: Declan Boyle (rallying) * July:

Ryan McHugh Ryan McHugh (born 11 April 1994) is an Irish Gaelic footballer who plays for Cill Chartha and the Donegal county team. He is the brother of Mark and the son of Martin. A former county minor, McHugh propelled himself onto the national stage in ...

(Gaelic football) * August: Mark English (athletics) * September: ? * October: ? * November: Geraldine McLaughlin (Gaelic football) * December: Ann Marie McGlynn (athletics)

2015

* January: ? * February: ? * March: ? * April: ? * May: ? * June: ? * July:

Yvonne McMonagle Yvonne is a feminine given name, the female form of Yvon, which is derived from the French name Yves and Yvette. It is from the French word ''iv'', meaning "yew" (or tree). Since yew wood was used for bows, Ivo may have been an occupational na ...

(Gaelic football) * August: ? * September: ? * October: ? * November: ? * December:

Niall O'Donnell Niall O'Donnell (born 1998) is an Irish Gaelic footballer who plays for St Eunan's and the Donegal county team. The ''Irish Independents Colm Keys named O'Donnell among his "18 for 08: The brightest young talents" in Gaelic football, descri ...

(Gaelic football)

2016

* January: ? * February: Darren McElwaine (association football) * March: Rhys Irwin (racing) * April: Denise McElhinney (hockey) * May:

Karen Guthrie Karen Guthrie (born 1970) is a British artist that works with public art, installation, film making, and internet publishing. She lives and works in the Lake District, UK. Most of her work is done in collaboration with Nina Pope. Guthrie and P ...

(Gaelic football) * June:

Manus Kelly Manus Kelly (9 February 1978 – 23 June 2019) was an Irish rally driver, businessman, and Fianna Fáil politician from Glenswilly in County Donegal. Known as "Mandy", he won the Donegal International Rally three consecutive times, in 2016, 201 ...

(rallying) * July: Peadar Mogan (Gaelic football) * August: ? * September: Aidan Callaghan (triathlon) * October: ? * November: Grainne Russell (swimming) * December: ? 10019 Mark English

2017

* January: Paddy Bond (swimming) * February: ? * March: Marty Lynch * April: Conor McMenamin (rugby union) * May: ? * June:

(rallying) * July: ? * August: ? * September: Tyler Toland (association football) * October:

Michael Hegarty Michael Hegarty is an Irish former Gaelic footballer who played for Cill Chartha and the Donegal county team. Alongside Johnny McLoone, Barry Monaghan and Eamon Reddin, he played in a minor team that nearly qualified for the 1996 All-Irel ...

(Gaelic football) * November: ? * December: ?

2018

* January: Catherine Grier (association football) * February: ? * March: ? * April: ? * May: ? * June: ? * July: ? * August: * September: Daragh Ellison (association football

) * October: ? * November: ? * December: ?

2019

* January: ? * February: ? * March: Patrick Quinlivan (gymnastics) * April: ? * May: ? * June: ? * July: ? * August: ? * September: ? * October: Ethan O'Donnell (Gaelic football) * November: Matthew McCole (boxing) * December: Jamie Grant (Gaelic football) Boyce_Ojala_Kucmin

2020

* January: Killian Gribben (basketball) * February: Ronan McGeehin (Gaelic football goalkeeper) * March: Declan Coulter (hurling) * April: ''No award given due to 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 ...

's impact on sports'' * May: ''No award given due to the

's impact on sports'' * June: ''No award given due to the

's impact on sports'' * July: Keith Cowan (association football) * August: Brendan O'Donnell (hammer throwing) * September: Oisin Orr (jockey) * October: Mark Anthony McGinley (association football) * November: Joe Boyle (hurling) * December: Aoife Gallanagh (association football)

2021

* January: ''No award given due to the

's impact on sports'' * February: ''No award given due to the

's impact on sports'' * March: ''No award given due to the

's impact on sports'' * April: ''No award given due to the

's impact on sports'' * May: ''No award given due to the

's impact on sports'' * June: ''No award given due to the

's impact on sports'' * July: Adrienne Gallen (hammer throwing) * August:

(race walking) * September: Helena Melly (pool) * October:

Dylan Browne McMonagle Dylan Browne McMonagle（born 6 March 2003) is a multiple Group 1-winning Irish jockey who competes in flat racing. Background Browne McMonagle was born in Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland. He rode on the pony racing circuit for his uncle ...

(horse racing) * November: Kieran Tobin (Gaelic football) * December: Ciara Grant (association football)

2022

* January: Shannon Ní Chuinneagáin (basketball) * February: Ryan Griffin (golf) * March: Riona Doherty (athletics) * April: Peter Scott (rugby) * May: Jack Parke (association football) * June: Luke Witherow (hockey) * July: John Kelly (

shot put The shot put is a track-and-field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical Ball (sports), ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the Olympic Games, modern Olympics since their 1896 Summer Olym ...

) * August: * September:

(horse racing) * October: * November: * December: Ciara Grant WUG

2023

* January: * February: * March: * April: * May: * June:

Oisín Gallen Oisín Gallen (born 1999/2000) is an Irish Gaelic footballer who plays for Seán Mac Cumhaills and the Donegal county team. He plays as a forward. Playing career Club 2018 was when Gallen first played for his club in the senior championship. ...

(Gaelic football) * July: * August: * September: * October: * November: * December:

2021

;Multiple winners *

(2013, 2021) *

(2021, 2022) * Mark English (2012, 2013, 2014) *

(2016, 2017) *

(2012, 2013)

References

''Sunday Business Post'', 2002/03/10: "''Derry People'' renamed ''Donegal News''"

External links

*
North West of Ireland Printing and Publishing"The Last Corncrake"
{{Ireland newspapers 1903 establishments in Ireland Mass media in Letterkenny Newspapers established in 1903 Newspapers published in Northern Ireland Newspapers published in the Republic of Ireland Weekly newspapers published in Ireland