{"id":498057,"date":"2026-06-13T17:23:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T17:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/498057\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T17:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T17:23:11","slug":"standing-ovation-for-donegal-piper-christy-murray-ahead-of-donegal-cork-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/498057\/","title":{"rendered":"Standing ovation for Donegal Piper Christy Murray ahead of Donegal-Cork game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donegal fans showed their appreciation and support for one of the county’s most beloved musicians ahead of their game against Cork this afternoon.<\/p>\n

With Ballybofey’s MacCumhaill Park sold-out and packed to the gills for today’s All-Ireland Championship clash, today marked a poignant moment for the Donegal Piper, Christy Murray.<\/p>\n

Christy’s nephew Ronan Strain was reported missing from Smithfield in Dublin 7 on May the 14th.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old, who is originally from the Raphoe area, is believed to have gone missing in the Howth area.<\/p>\n

Following the most difficult of months for all of Ronan’s extended family and friends, the prospect of playing in front of a crowded stadium for his uncle Christy was surely not front of mind.<\/p>\n

However, Christy decided to make the short journey to the Twin Towns this afternoon to do what he is known best for: entertaining Donegal fans ahead of a big match.<\/p>\n

He was met with a rousing round of applause and a standing ovation from the stands ahead of the match today:<\/p>\n

“Big game today. We plan to be there. My heart is heavy but music has helped me in the past,” Christy said on social media ahead of today’s game.<\/p>\n

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“Tuning my pipes was very emotional. We are massive Donegal supporters and this is a step towards a strange normality.”<\/p>\n

“I play for Ronan today. Everyone just be kind and always chat to each other. Up Donegal!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donegal fans showed their appreciation and support for one of the county’s most beloved musicians ahead of their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-498057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}