Declan Bonner

Declan Bonner
Personal information
Sport Gaelic football
Position Right corner forward
Born (1965-08-11) 11 August 1965 (age 58)[1]
An Clochán Liath,[citation needed] Ireland
Height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Occupation Wine merchant[2]
Club(s)
Years Club
1979–
1988
Na Rossa
Donegal Boston
Inter-county(ies)
Years County Apps (scores)
1983–1995
Donegal 110 (12–193)[3]
Inter-county titles
Ulster titles 2
All-Irelands 1
All Stars 0
Personal information
Born (1965-08-11) 11 August 1965 (age 58)[1]
An Clochán Liath,[citation needed] Ireland
Club management
Years Club
1988–19??
?–?
c. 2006
?
c. 2023
Na Rossa
An Clochán Liath
Gaoth Dobhair
Na Rossa
Na Rossa
Inter-county management
Years Team
1997–2000
2017–2022
Donegal
Donegal
Inter-county titles
County League Province All-Ireland
Donegal 2

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 for two spells between 1997 and 2000 and 2017 and 2022, winning two Ulster Senior Football Championship titles during the latter, while playing as goalkeeper for Na Rossa.

Bonner's first spell as manager of the county team, from 1997 until 2000, saw him denied an Ulster Senior Football Championship title by a last-minute Joe Brolly goal in the 1998 final. After leading the county minor team to the 2014 All-Ireland Minor Football Championship final, Bonner was given a second chance at the senior job when a vacancy arose in 2017. Donegal had been left in a state of decline by his predecessor following the successful Jim McGuinness era. Bonner improved the team and led them to two Ulster Senior Football Championship titles, in 2018 and 2019, becoming only the second manager in team history (after McGuinness) to retain the title.

Bonner maintains prominent media roles in his native county, such as with Highland Radio.[4] He contributes a weekly column called "[Making] No Bones About It[!]", which features on the inside back cover of the Donegal News.[5][6]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference dsh_22092017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Haughey, John (4 June 2020). "Declan Bonner convinced championship will happen and with some spectators". BBC Sport. Retrieved 4 June 2020. Bonner works for a wine company whose sales are largely to hotels and restaurants so has been keeping an keen eye on the debate on whether the current social distancing requirements of two metres will be reduced to the World Health Organization's guideline of one metre.
  3. ^ McNulty, Chris (14 August 2018). "Numbers stack up as Michael Murphy tops Donegal's all-time charts". Retrieved 14 August 2018.
  4. ^ "The Highland Radio commentary for the All-Ireland Football Final". Balls.ie. 24 September 2012. Retrieved 24 September 2012.
  5. ^ Bonner, Declan. "No Bones About It". Donegal News.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference dn_21042017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).