Tom Conaghan is an Irish

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 ...

figure who managed

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 ...

s during the 1980s and, later, the Sligo senior team. His former players regarded him as a

disciplinarian Discipline is the self-control that is gained by requiring that rules or orders be obeyed, and the ability to keep working at something that is difficult. Disciplinarians believe that such self-control is of the utmost importance and enforce a ...

in his approach to management.

Early life

Conaghan was born into a family of six, and brought up in the centre of

Donegal Town Donegal ( ; , "fort of the foreigners") is a town in County Donegal in Ulster, the northern Provinces of Ireland, province in Ireland. Although Donegal gave its name to the county, now Lifford is the county town. From the 15th until the early 1 ...

, where his family ran a business that consisted of a hackney, a store and undertaking. His father died suddenly at the age of 50, after suffering a heart attack, when Conaghan was a still a boy. Conaghan attended Hugh Roe Boys' School and the Tech, before taking up employment as a driver, a job which necessitated travel across Ireland. He then became a farmer, working on his mother's family land in Glenfin. Conaghan also ran a sports shop in the centre of Donegal Town.

Career

Conaghan played with Four Masters and Clanna Gael. He suggested that it was the lack of discipline he saw in the Donegal teams of the 1970s that inspired him to pursue the coaching of the county's under-21 team. Conaghan managed Donegal to the 1982

All-Ireland Under-21 Football Championship The GAA Football Under-20 All-Ireland Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the EirGrid GAA Football Under-20 All-Ireland Championship) is an annual inter-county Gaelic football competition organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association ...

. He later took over from

Brian McEniff Brian McEniff (born 1 December 1942) is a former Gaelic football player, manager and administrator. McEniff played as a wing-back for the St Joseph's combination of clubs from Bundoran and Ballyshannon. He won seven Donegal Senior Football ...

as senior manager when McEniff had led the 1983

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

campaign to a win. Over the course of his time as senior manager during the 1980s, Conaghan fell out with numerous players. He dropped Marty Carlin and Charlie Mulgrew from his team for one year after they played for

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 ...

in a Forster Cup final victory at Ravenhill in 1987. Other players with whom he fell out during his time as senior manager included

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 title in 1992. He later managed the Donegal county team ...

, Manus Boyle, Matt Gallagher,

Barry McGowan Barry McGowan (born January 1967) is an Irish former Gaelic footballer who played for CLG Na Cealla Beaga, Na Cealla Beaga and the Donegal county football team, Donegal county team. As of 2009, he was working for the ESB Group, ESB. Inter-coun ...

and Sylvester Maguire. Conaghan's spell as county manager ended with a heavy defeat to Tyrone. McEniff, returning to the senior job for a fourth time in September 1989, restored many of those with whom Conaghan had fallen out to the panel in time for the 1990

, which Donegal won. Conaghan later managed the Sligo seniors. He was mentioned as a possible successor to

P. J. McGowan P. J. McGowan (born 1951/52) is an Irish Gaelic football manager and administrator. He succeeded Brian McEniff as Donegal county football team, Donegal manager in 1994 and lasted until 1997, thus preceding Declan Bonner's first spell in charge. H ...

as Donegal manager in 1997 in a dual role with Anthony Molloy. He withdrew and

became manager. In later years, Conaghan became involved in politics and sat as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

Donegal County Council Donegal County Council () is the authority responsible for Local government in the Republic of Ireland, local government in County Donegal, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. As a county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The ...

. He first stood for election in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

but did not win a seat. He won a seat in

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

and retained it in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

. In 2012, he was mayor of

. He was elected Cathaoirleach of the Donegal Municipal District on 13 June 2017. He did not contest the 2024 election.

Personal life

Conaghan married Celine and they had three children together. His only son, Kevin, died as the result of an accident, at the age of 14. He continues to work as a farmer, work which includes lambs, cattle and crops.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Conaghan, Tom Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Four Masters Gaelic footballers Gaelic football managers Independent politicians in Ireland 20th-century Irish farmers Irish sportsperson-politicians Mayors of places in the Republic of Ireland Members of Donegal County Council Politicians from County Donegal