Donal Reid
Irish Gaelic footballer

Donal Reid ( DOH-nəl reed; born 1961 or 1962) is an Irish former Gaelic footballer who played for Bundoran, Red Hughs and the Donegal county team. He played more than 100 times competitively for Donegal, appearing at all age levels and positions from midfield to forward to defence.
Reid won two All-Ireland titles with his county, and was part of Jim McGuinness's backroom team when they won another in 2012. He also played hurling with the Setanta club.
Playing career
Reid played first with Bundoran and later with the Red Hughs club. He played alongside future Donegal manager Brian McEniff in the team's defence.
Reid first played for his county at the age of 17. He was a replacement All Star in 1980. His brother Bosco graduated to the senior ranks of county football in 1985–6, while another brother, Oliver, played at under-21 level for his county in 1992.
Reid started the 1982 All-Ireland Under-21 Football Championship final, the nineteenth edition of this competition and the first one that Donegal won.
“Donal Reid” enters the record as irish Gaelic footballer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Donal, Reid and Irish can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Donal Reid” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Donal, Reid and Irish provides the most credible route into that argument.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5293893. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1961, 1962, 2012 and 1980.
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This entry incorporates text from “Donal Reid” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.