Four Masters GAA
GAA club in County Donegal
Four Masters is a GAA club located in the town of Donegal in County Donegal, Ireland. They are one of the strongholds of Gaelic football in Donegal.
History
Based in the parishes of Townawilly and Killymard, Donegal Town, Four Masters is one of the oldest and most successful clubs in Donegal having won 3 Donegal Senior Football Championships.
The GAA club under Warwickshire County Board in Coventry, England, is named after the Four Masters club in Donegal. That club was unable to register as a Donegal Club but reserved the Four Masters name.
Austin O'Kennedy, a top GAA doctor who oversaw all Donegal county teams for 22 years, has also been involved with Four Masters for even longer. Tom Conaghan who managed the Four Masters to two county championships in 1982 and 1984 went on to manage the county team during the late 80s. He managed Donegal to the 1989 Ulster Final which they lost in a replay to Tyrone.
The club has more All Stars Awards than any other club in the county, Donal Monaghan winning one in 1974 (the year he was Man of the Match against Down in the Ulster Senior Football Championship final), Joyce McMullin winning one in 1990, Paul Durcan winning two in 2012 and 2014 and Karl Lacey winning four in 2006 and 2009 at corner back and 2011 and 2012 at centre-half back. Lacey also won the GAA GPA Player of the year award in 2012.
“Four Masters GAA” enters the record as gAA club in County Donegal. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Four, Masters and club can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Four Masters GAA” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Four, Masters and club provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5475321. Authority coordinates are 54.655, -8.122. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1982, 1984, 1989 and 1974.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Four Masters GAA”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Four Masters GAA primary sources, Four Masters GAA archive and Four research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Four Masters GAA”?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Four Masters GAA” 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.