Conall Dunne (born 1983 or 4) is an Irish former Gaelic footballer who played for St Eunan's and the Donegal county team.

Conall Dunne
Personal information
Sport Gaelic football
Born 1983 or 1984 (age 40–41)[1]
Occupation Accountant[1][2]
Club(s)
Years Club
?–2019
St Eunan's
Inter-county(ies)
Years County
200?–2010
Donegal
Inter-county titles
NFL 1

"What happened was that we [Dunne and Rory Kavanagh] were down at the Kilmacud Crokes 7s. We'd been up in Dublin. The nature of that, it's a gruelling weekend. So we'd a good few days. We were still feeling quite sore on the Monday. We both landed down to a trial game… I never got any explanation on it from Jim [McGuinness]. There was no fallout… You have to remember Donegal at the time hadn't been too successful and were in a really poor place. So I probably didn't think I was going to be missing out on anything. There is no doubt about it, it was bad timing. And it was disappointing to miss out on Ulster and All-Ireland medals. But that's football, that's life".

– Dunne speaking in 2021 on the abrupt end to his playing days with his county[3]

Club

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Dunne played his club football for St Eunan's.[4] Among his fans were Joe Kernan.[5]

He had taken over as the club's penalty taker by 2014.[2]

Dunne retired at the end of the 2019 season.[1]

Inter-county

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Dunne played at senior level for the Donegal county team.[6]

He made his championship debut in 2002 in Donegal's All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Dublin. He did not make another appearance in the Championship for three years.[7]

He played in the 2006 Ulster Senior Football Championship Final at Croke Park and scored one point.[8]

He was one of three representatives from his club on the county panel that won the 2007 National Football League.[9]

He scored a goal against Laois in the 2010 National Football League.[10]

He scored a goal against Down in 2010.[7]

He lost his place in the panel when Jim McGuinness took over as manager in late 2010.[3] Himself and Rory Kavanagh arrived to an early trial match but a misunderstanding led them to forget their sportswear.[3] Kavanagh located the necessary in the car park, Dunne could not.[3]

Personal life

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Dunne is a chartered accountant (part of the body Chartered Accountants Ireland) and succeeded Niall Doherty (brother of Eamonn Doherty) as treasurer of his club.[1][11][12] He trained with PricewaterhouseCoopers and went on to work in the food industry, later establishing an accountancy practice (Conall Dunne & Co).[13]

Honours

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Donegal
St Eunan's

References

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  1. ^ a b c d O'Donnell, Ciaran (7 January 2020). "Former stars lead changing of the guard at St Eunan's". Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  2. ^ a b McNulty, Chris (11 November 2014). "Conall Dunne hopes to make up for St Eunan's lost Ulster years". Donegal News. Retrieved 11 November 2014. CONALL Dunne could've been forgiven for thinking that the chance to make a mark on Ulster in the St Eunan's colours had eluded him, but the 31-year-old accountant sees a big chance for the black and amber this year.
  3. ^ a b c d Craig, Frank (21 March 2021). "Total Recall: Down edge out Donegal in Ulster thriller". Gaelic Life. Retrieved 21 March 2021. Section titled "Dunne and dusted", also published as "Total recall: Down just about edge out Donegal" in the Donegal News of 18 March 2021: pp 52–53.
  4. ^ "Round-up of Sunday's club games". RTÉ Sport. 2 November 2008. Retrieved 2 November 2008. St Eunan's' Conal Dunne is a happy man after their victory over Clonoe
  5. ^ Kernan, Joe (18 November 2008). "Joe Kernan: Lower the prices GAA, that is just the ticket". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 18 November 2008. Rangers came back strongly against St Eunan's when they found themselves 0-6 to 0-2 down and eventually secured their passage into the final although I was most impressed with Rory Kavanagh, David McGinley, Ross Wherity, Kevin Rafferty, John Haran and Conal Dunne in the Donegal champions' line-up.
  6. ^ "Donegal 2-13 Carlow 1-06". RTÉ Sport. 4 July 2009. Retrieved 4 July 2009. Conal Dunne, taking a pass from Rory Kavanagh, may have opened the scoring, but the midlanders were quickly back level thanks to a score from distance from Daniel St Ledger.
  7. ^ a b Nulty, Chris (22 July 2011). "1992–2011: The best XV not to win Ulster…". Donegal News. Archived from the original on 2 April 2016. Retrieved 22 July 2011.
  8. ^ "Donegal 0-09 1-09 Armagh". BBC Sport. 9 July 2006. Retrieved 9 July 2006.
  9. ^ "All-Ireland Final Players". St Eunan's. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015.
  10. ^ "Murphy shows the way for Donegal in stroll past depleted Laois". Irish Independent. 15 February 2010. Retrieved 15 February 2010.
  11. ^ "Online Chartered Accountants Ireland — Conall Dunne & Co". Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  12. ^ Source for the Doherty brothers: "St Eunan's GAA Club presentation". Donegal News. 5 March 2020. p. 71. Former treasurer, Niall Doherty, was named club person of the year. Announcing the local accountant as the recipient of the award, former chairman, Cathal Greene, thanked Niall for his huge efforts in his role as treasurer. The photograph at the bottom of the page is then captioned: "Eamonn Doherty receives Club Person of the Year Award on behalf of his brother Niall from Club Chairman John Haran", with Eamonn Doherty on the left and John Haran on the right.
  13. ^ Walsh, Harry (1 January 2021). "Expect 'some turbulence' as Brexit Day finally arrives". Donegal News. Retrieved 1 January 2021. Having trained as an accountant with Price, Waterhouse Cooper,[sic] Mr Dunne held a number of senior financial roles in the food industry before setting up his own accountancy practice more than two years ago.
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