Bonner's first spell as manager of the county team, from 1997 until 2000, saw him denied an Ulster Senior Football Championship title by a last-minute Joe Brolly goal in the 1998 final. After leading the county minor team to the 2014 All-Ireland Minor Football Championship final, Bonner was given a second chance at the senior job when a vacancy arose in 2017. Donegal had been left in a state of decline by his predecessor following the successful Jim McGuinness era. Bonner improved the team and led them to two Ulster Senior Football Championship titles, in 2018 and 2019, becoming only the second manager in team history (after McGuinness) to retain the title.
Bonner maintains prominent media roles in his native county, such as with Highland Radio.[4] He contributes a weekly column called "[Making] No Bones About It[!]", which features on the inside back cover of the Donegal News.[5][6]
Bonner attended Rosses Community School. He was part of the school association football team which won the 1982 All-Ireland Under-16 title. He scored the goal in the 1–0 Ulster final win over Falcarragh CS. He scored it from the halfway line. In the All-Ireland semi-final the game went to penalties, with Rosses Community School advancing 3–1 and Bonner scoring one of those. Bonner was playing at centre back.[8]
Playing career
Club
Bonner plays for his local club Na Rossa. He is considered their "most famous son".[9] He made his senior debut for his club at the age of 14 in 1979.[10][11] At the age of 16 he was part of the team that won the 1982 Donegal Junior Football Championship.[1] A week after leading Donegal to his first Ulster SFC as manager in 2018, Bonner kept a clean sheet while playing in goal in a league match for his club.[12] He played his fortieth season in 2019, participating in the Donegal Junior Football Championship as an emergency goalkeeper.[10][11] His brothers Sean, Michael, Donal and Aidan also played for the club.[1] Sean also played in the full-back line when Donegal won the 1982 All-Ireland Under-21 Football Championship.[13]
He won the under-12, under-14 (twice) and under-16 (twice) titles with Rosses Rovers.[1] He is also a Donegal Boston past player.[14]
Bonner made his National Football League debut for Donegal at the age of 18 in late-1983.[1][13] Donegal had earlier won the 1983 Ulster Senior Football Championship, with Bonner still a minor and playing no part.[13] He made his senior championship debut against Armagh in 1987.[1]
However, Bonner went from playing every championship match to falling out with manager Tom Conaghan.[1][16] This was after Bonner played for Boston in 1988 and, having returned late, Conaghan did not include him in the county panel for the remainder of the year or for the following year either.[1][17] Bonner thus missed the 1989 Ulster SFC final.[17] He began playing for League of Ireland soccer club Finn Harps in 1989, playing there at left-back until 1991.[18] Conaghan's time as manager came to an end and Brian McEniff returned to the role in September 1989.[1][16] McEniff restored Bonner to the team in time for the 1990 Ulster SFC.[16] Bonner played against Armagh in the 1990 Ulster SFC final, won by Donegal, and scored 0–2 (including one free).[16] He once played for Finn Harps against Cobh Ramblers on a Sunday at noon, then for Donegal against Longford in the National Football League on the same day in 1991.[19]
Bonner scored 0–19 in the 1992 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.[1] That year Donegal qualified for the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final for the first time in history. Bonner scored 0–4 of Donegal's total in the county's victory over Dublin in that game, and it was also he who scored the final point of the match.[1][20][21] Upon doing so he clenched his fist, certain in the knowledge of victory.[1] It is regarded as one of the most iconic moments in team history.[1] He fell to the floor and was there when the referee blew the final whistle.[1] But, within five years of raising aloft the Sam Maguire Cup, Bonner was forced to retire from the (inter-county) game due to injury.[20]
He was seriously injured in the 1992–93 National Football League semi-final in which Donegal defeated Clare at Croke Park and spent several weeks in hospital. With Dublin playing Kerry in the other semi-final, the Dublin fans on Hill 16 took the opportunity to call Bonner unpleasant names as he was stretchered off.[22]
Bonner played his last game for Donegal against Cavan in the 1997 Ulster SFC semi-final.[23] As the second half of that game got underway, he had to go off briefly to have two cracked ribs treated.[23] When he left Donegal were two points ahead.[23] When he returned the game had begun to go in Cavan's favour.[23] Cavan won and then went on to win the 1997 Ulster Senior Football Championship Final.[23]
Bonner played in four Ulster SFC finals, recording two wins and two losses, an achievement he equalled as manager in 2020.[24]
Management career
"You can talk about management structures and methods until you're blue in the face, but what you need above everything else is a squad of players willing to buy into what you're doing. Anytime I go to take on a job, if I don't get that then I don't hang around. You have to demand that. There's no point in me giving it 120 per cent and some man landing to only put in 90 per cent. It doesn't work. When I go in, it's all or nothing".
– Bonner discussing his managerial philosophy in 2014[1]
"Declan has a great way with him. He's a very good people person… A big part of a situation is doing things for people you like; things you wouldn't do for someone you didn't like. It's not about respect as such, it's just a genuine fondness for the guy".
– John Gildea credited Bonner for persisting with him in 1998 during a difficult time in his career[25]
Bonner has been mentored in management by McEniff.[1] Like McEniff, his management style is based around personal connection with his players.[13]
Early club management
Bonner became player-manager with Na Rossa at the age of 23, his first managerial appointment.[17] This was during his fall out with Donegal manager Tom Conaghan during which time Bonner was exiled from the county team.[17] To pass his period of exile he led Na Rossa to the 1989 Donegal Intermediate Football Championship title, while also playing for that club.[1][17] Bonner's brothers Sean, Michael and Donal were also part of that Na Rossa team, while his brother Aidan — a minor — was a substitute.[17] McEniff took over as Donegal manager again at the end of 1989.[17] McEniff recalled Bonner to the county team.[17] Bonner would not manage Na Rossa again for some time.[17]
Inter-county
Bonner managed the Donegal county football team at senior level between 1997 and 2000.[26][27] He was called the day after Cavan won the 1997 Ulster Senior Football Championship final to ask about submitting his name for the role.[23] He began on his 32nd birthday, within four weeks of retirement.[1][20][28] He was informed of the decision to appoint him at 9.29 pm on 11 August 1997, after Anthony Molloy, past manager Conaghan and Pauric McShea all withdrew.[1]Charlie Mulgrew and Matt Gallagher were part of Bonner's management team.[29] Bonner led Donegal to the 1997–98 National Football League semi-final against eventual title winners Offaly and the 1998 Ulster SFC final against Derry — a last-minute Joe Brolly goal, accompanied by a few kisses to the crowd, put paid to that one.[1][20]
Bonner sought a joint managerial position with the senior footballers alongside Charlie Mulgrew in 2008, but both ultimately lost out to John Joe Doherty.[35][26]
Return to inter-county management
"If you keep putting excuses in the way then you won't have success. All I was listening to was excuses. People were coming up saying 'the colleges in Donegal aren't good enough', 'Derry and Tyrone are so far ahead of us', 'we just don't have the resources'. In the past, Donegal minor teams were beaten before they went out. When we came in and started to win at under-16 level the players saw and realised that they weren't far away".
– Bonner, speaking in 2014 while county minor manager[1]
In 2011, Bonner went to assist Paddy Hegarty with a South Donegal development squad.[1] This, he later explained, was the start of his "accidental" return to inter-county management.[1]
Bonner won the (Ulster under-16) Buncrana Cup in 2012.[32] He then won the (Ulster under-17) Jim McGuigan Cup.[1] In mid-2013, Bonner was appointed manager of the Donegal minor team.[32] He managed the county team to the 2014 Ulster Minor Football Championship; then to a first ever All-Ireland Minor Football Championship final, against Kerry.[36] He was not afforded a meeting with his predecessor as county minor manager, a decision he criticised in 2017 when he wrote in the Donegal News that such a meeting should be mandatory.[37]
In 2015, Bonner was appointed manager of the Donegal under-21 team.[39] He managed the county team to an Ulster Under-21 Football Championship in 2017, defeating Derry in the final.[6] However, he was critical of the Ulster Council for not allowing them sufficient time to prepare for the All-Ireland semi-final, which they lost to Dublin.[6] While managing the Donegal under-21 team, Bonner was linked with the vacant Cavan senior post in October 2016.[40]
On 22 September 2017, Bonner was reappointed manager of the senior team on a three-year term, succeeding Rory Gallagher.[41] Shortly before the appointment, Bonner wrote in the Donegal News: "We were a top tier team, but we have dropped down over the last year or two, and I can't see that changing unless we start to have a serious look at our structures from Under 15 right up to seniors, and the way we conduct our business".[42] Bonner's appointment was not universally welcomed.[29][43] However, it brought about a marked improvement in the team's fortunes and Bonner led his county to the 2018 and 2019 Ulster Senior Football Championship titles.[10] While managing Donegal, he returned to line out for his club at JFC level, notably making saves while playing as goalkeeper when his team's regular goalkeeper transferred to New York.[9][10][11]
Bonner was reappointed for another two-year term as Donegal manager at the end of August 2021 when no other candidates emerged to succeed him.[44]
^Haughey, John (4 June 2020). "Declan Bonner convinced championship will happen and with some spectators". BBC Sport. Retrieved 4 June 2020. Bonner works for a wine company whose sales are largely to hotels and restaurants so has been keeping an keen eye on the debate on whether the current social distancing requirements of two metres will be reduced to the World Health Organization's guideline of one metre.
^ abcd"Disappointed Bonner hits out at Ulster Council". Donegal News. 21 April 2017. Retrieved 21 April 2017. Writing in his weekly column in the Donegal News, 'No Bones About it', Bonner blasted the provincial body for starting their competition too late, and that meant his team had less than five days to prepare for an All-Ireland semi-final with Dublin.
^McNulty, Chris (18 July 2014). "Management is in the blood for Declan Bonner". Donegal News. Retrieved 18 July 2014. Dan Bonner passed away last August. The graveyard Mass in Doochary was last Sunday. It was with a heavy heart that Declan missed it. He was at the Connacht football final casting an eye over potential opponents, Mayo and Roscommon. Dan Bonner would've understood.
^Walsh, Enda (19 May 2022). "Remembering Rosses Community School's All Ireland Triumph Forty Years On[sic]". Donegal News. p. 59. Forty years ago, Rosses Community School became All Ireland champions in the Under 16 grade for the first time ever. The school competed in the 'A' section of the Irish schools and came across, and overcame, some heavy-hitters along the way. Former SFC All Ireland winner and current Donegal GAA manager, Declan Bonner got the all important goal in the 1–0 Ulster final win over fellow Donegal side Falcarragh CS. A spectacular effort by Bonner from the halfway line saw the Rosses side advance to the All-Ireland Finals weekend in Limerick. In the All Ireland semi-final the team went up against a star-studded side from Galway City in St Joseph's. Rosses CS kept another clean sheet and the game went to penalties, the Donegal side advancing to the decider on a 3–1 scoreline. Bonner, Tim McBride and Joe Boyle were the successful takers while goalkeeper Noel Bonner produced several brilliant saves to see his side progress… Rosses Community School All Ireland Winning Team: Noel Bonner, Joe Boyle, Owen Bonner, Declan Bonner, Charlie Bonner, Brendan Boyle, George Trimble, Tim McBride, Gerard Carson, Stephen Doherty, Donal Bonner, John Gallagher, Charlie Duggan.
^Bonner, Declan (26 November 2020). "Painful defeat in Ulster final". Donegal News. p. 63. I played in four Ulster Finals, winning two and losing two. I managed in 1998 when Derry beat us before seeing the other side of it in the last two years. But Sunday [the 2020 Ulster Senior Football Championship final loss] was the greatest pain of all.
^"Galway blow as Fallon to switch codes". Irish Independent. 11 February 1998. Donegal also selected their team last night, and they handed league debuts to Martin Bonnar from Na Rossa, home club of new manager Declan Bonner, and John Haran of St Eunan's, Letterkenny.
^ abCampbell, Peter (28 September 2017). "Why can't Donegal unite behind new manager Declan Bonner?". Retrieved 28 September 2017. Then before the new manager was proposed and seconded (and there was a pregnant pause on that issue too) there were questions about how the new manager would deal with the club v player issue. Even when the new manager was revealed and brought in from the corridor, the atmosphere was sombre. I was surprised that the delegates present could not give him a warmer welcome. There were rumours that Declan wasn't universally popular… It's hard to imagine that a 32-year-old would be given the job nowadays. Back then [in his first spell in charge] his assistants, Matt Gallagher and Charlie Mulgrew, weren't much older.
^"McBrearty looking for time off". Hogan Stand. 25 January 2013. Retrieved 25 January 2013. 1992 Donegal All-Ireland winner Declan Bonner coached McHugh in the Na Rossa GAA set-up.
^Ferry, Ryan (3 October 2019). "Gaels target historic final berth". Donegal News. p. 73. It's 11 years since Na Rossa last contested a county final, but they are hoping to qualify for the Junior 'A' Championship decider this Saturday when they take on Letterkenny Gaels. In 2008, Na Rossa reached the Intermediate final but lost by three points in the final against MacCumhaills.
^McNulty, Chris (14 August 2008). "Urris crash out of championship". Inishowen Independent. Retrieved 14 August 2008. Former Donegal panellist Martin Caulfield hit a deadly 2–4 as Na Rossa breezed past Urris in the second leg of this Intermediate Championship clash at Dooey on Saturday evening, sealing a place in the semi-finals for Declan Bonner's charges.
