More sport and tourism funding sought for Ballybofey-Stranorlar

Calls have been made for more funding and promotion to be allocated to sports and tourism in the Ballybofey and Stranorlar area.

Councillors at the Lifford - Stranorlar MD meeting were in agreement that a push should be made.

Ballybofey & Stranorlar Golf Club is a highly regarded 18-hole parkland golf course located at The Glebe, Stranorlar.

“I would like to see the golf club benefit financially from the council”, Cllr Frank McBrearty, independent, said. “The fact that we have a golf club of a very great facility is absolutely fantastic. The Stranorlar and Ballybofey area is a centre of excellence for sport.

“We have all seen the joy of Mark English winning the European gold medal, and other Irish athletes who did very well at the European Championships, so I think we need to do more to promote what we’ve got.”

Mark English is from Letterkenny and a clubman of Finn Valley AC who represented Ireland at the Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020, and Paris 2024 Olympic Games. More recently, he won the 800 metre gold medal at the 2026 European Outdoor Championships in Birmingham.

In response, Cllr Patrick McGowan, Fianna Fáil, was supportive of the idea; however, he pushed for funding to be allocated evenly across different sports centres in the area.

“I would support that”, he said. “There was a discussion in the last meeting about putting a fund of €100,000, but it was about promoting golf. We need to be highlighting a lot more of this under Donegal tourism… Golf is a very important sport; it’s good exercise, and people of all ages play it.

“We should be looking for sports grants or some way that could help promote this area as sporting excellence, and under tourism as well for running, marathons, and football.”

Donegal Sports Partnership was awarded €477,807 in core funding for 2026 to support local community sport and physical activity, which increased from €437,219 that was allocated for 2025.