McHugh's Miscellany: Donegal semi final date not in tune with traditions

Donegal play Galway in the 2024 All Ireland senior football semi final on Sunday, July 14 with a final date scheduled or in my opinion totally and needlessly squeezed in for July 28. 

The final will only run into August, if the sides are still level after extra time and a replay is required in the final.

Ten years ago, the last time the green and gold made a championship semi final appearance, that same day, the 2014 Donegal team would only have been in training and preparing for an Ulster senior football final with Monaghan, with that final not being played until Sunday July 20. 

We duly won, (0-14 to 1-09) taking revenge for an Ulster final defeat a year previous to the same opposition. 

Our 2014 All Ireland quarter final wasn’t played until August 9 against Armagh (1-12 to 1-11), which we won by a point and then there was that year’s unforgettable semi final victory against reigning Dublin (3-14 to 0-17) played on August 31. A young Ryan McHugh scored an amazing 2-02 on the day. 

A gap of three weeks saw us line out against Kerry on September 21, which we disappointedly lost.

But it was memorable for us reaching both the All Ireland minor and senior finals for the first time, but these were the traditional dates for decades.  

ABOVE: The lower Cusack Stand fans view last Sunday after Donegal had scored ther first point against Louth in the All Ireland quarter final. (Photo: Michael McHugh)

For the older fans, it can still be a hard thing to get your head round, these truncated championships of recent years. 

My own memories hark back to a time of the yearly holiday in Dublin and always the third week in September, which just so happened to be All Ireland football final week. No great surprise there, ensconced at an Uncle’s house in Santry.

Galway were the great nemesis in two of our first three All Ireland semi final appearances when they defeated us in 1974 (3-13 to 1-14) and again in 1983, the latter we lost by an agonising single point (1-12 to 1-11). 

The downer in the car on the way home was terrible.

Funny how the old brain works and remembers. Taylor Swift fans was awash in the capital as we made our way up to Croker at the weekend, with three juvenile fan  debutantes in tow, but I clearly recall travelling in the family car past a throbbing Phoenix Park on the way to Croke Park on August 14, 1983 with U2 headlining a concert that also included Simple Minds and Eurythmics. 

We eventually gained revenge in Castlebar on August 11, 2003 defeating Galway in an All Ireland quarter final replay (014 to 0-11) having drawn with the Tribesman a week earlier in Croke Park.  

But in 2017, we were well defeated again by them in Markievicz Park (4-17 to 0-14) as they defeated us in the qualifiers to reach the All Ireland quarter finals. 

The adult stand ticket price on Sunday was €45 but I must applaud the GAA on the affordable fiver for the kids, as they captured first time memories of their visit to the Cusack Stand. 

These were available for both the Cusack and Davin Stands and the sight of so many families with children was a real joy to behold, while no doubt recruiting a whole new generation of GAA fans in the years ahead.  

For my own part, I still have the stub of the 1975 All Ireland final stub that I attended with my late father. 

Reigning All Ireland champions Dublin were defeated by a breathtaking Mick O’Dwyer Kerry team that was to go on and dominate Gaelic football for years to come.

And while stand tickets for the forthcoming All Ireland football final will be €100, if we were to be blessed to get there, I can also reveal that the price of that 1975 All Ireland ticket was just £2 punts.

My admission was gained by simply being lifted over the stiles, which were then just at adult hip level, compared to the more prison and draconian cramp like stiles of the modern age.

And while I totally understand a crowded fixture schedule, and the need for compromise, I will simply add, that it is not really proper or ethical to be squeezing two of the most iconic ‘amateur’ sporting events on this island, into a truncated and narrow events calendar, when you also include the hurling.