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 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.
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sport | Gaelic football | ||
| Position | Right corner forward | ||
| Born |
11 August 1965 An Clochán Liath, Ireland | ||
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | ||
| Occupation | Wine merchant | ||
| Club(s) | |||
| Years | Club | ||
1979– 1988 |
Na Rossa Donegal Boston | ||
| Inter-county(ies) | |||
| Years | County | Apps (scores) | |
1983–1995 | Donegal | 110 (12–193) | |
| Inter-county titles | |||
| Ulster titles | 2 | ||
| All-Irelands | 1 | ||
| All Stars | 0 | ||
| Personal information | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | 11 August 1965 An Clochán Liath, Ireland | ||||||||
| Club management | |||||||||
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| Inter-county management | |||||||||
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| Inter-county titles | |||||||||
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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. He contributes a weekly column called "[Making] No Bones About It[!]", which features on the inside back cover of the Donegal News.