The first comprehensive study of sport in Donegal throughout the period from 1880 until 1935. In assessing developments at a local and national level, it examines how structures for competitions and teams underwent a significant change within the county and throughout Ireland from the late Victorian period to the beginning of the Irish Free State.

This book looks at the development of sport in Donegal from 1880 until 1935. It is the first book to offer a full length examination of the rivalry between organizers of Gaelic football and soccer in an Irish county and is also the first to look at the geography of these sports. It assesses the reasons for the slow development of the GAA in Donegal and examines why Gaelic football did not become properly established until the 1920s, while also looking at the failure of hurling to develop despite Donegal's strong tradition of pre-codified forms of this sport.