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10 Sept 2025

Seven things: You know you’re from Donegal when …

This list aims to encompass some of the things that are ingrained in Donegal people, or at least heavily associated

The place is known for large gatherings

Nobody does a gathering quite like Donegal. Take, for example, the Gallagher clan gathering that was due to take place in 2013 in Gortahork. Event organisers optimistically invited former Oasis frontmen Noel and Liam Gallagher, Manchunians of Irish descent, despite the fact they hadn’t spoken in four years - or since! The modest affair went on for 10 days and with no Noel or Liam in attendance, missed out on the record of 14,088 Gallaghers that had met in Letterkenny in 2007.


A Donegal gathering is usually preceded by a Donegal gathering, then followed by another one

When it comes to weddings, basically if your fourth cousin twice removed, on your grandmother’s side from Auckland, New Zealand, isn’t invited, then you’re in bother. On a similar theme, Donegal wakes are famed for the number of people that can squeeze through the door, maintaining the old-fashioned tradition of the send-off from home before funeral mass and burial.

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