{"id":576973,"date":"2026-07-31T10:29:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T10:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/576973\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T10:29:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T10:29:12","slug":"donegal-jersey-unscathed-as-devastating-fire-destroys-family-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/576973\/","title":{"rendered":"Donegal jersey unscathed as devastating fire destroys family home"},"content":{"rendered":"

A signed Donegal GAA jersey was all that remained when a County Meath family lost their home in a devastating fire.<\/p>\n

Conal Quinn, a native of Inishowen, and his wife Evelyn, saw their Ashbourne home gutted by a blaze on Monday night.<\/p>\n

Precious memories went up in flames, but in one room of the house that miraculously escaped the inferno, a framed Donegal jersey survived.<\/p>\n

The shirt is signed by the Donegal squad that reached the 2014 All-Ireland final. Jim McGuinness\u2019 side were Ulster champions that summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe family have strong Donegal connections and the only thing unscathed was the framed Donegal jersey,\u201d said Ashbourne-based Independent County Councillor Joe Bonner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were very lucky. The fire service was great and it was fortunate that there was nobody injured.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Quinn home was gutted<\/p>\n

Councillor Bonner himself is a native of Glenties in Donegal – the home town of McGuinness.<\/p>\n

His nephews Anthony Thompson and Leon Thompsons were both members of the 2014 squad while another of the Thompsons, Ciaran, is a member of the current Donegal panel.<\/p>\n

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Councillor Bonner has, with the Quinn family\u2019s permission, launched a fundraising drive to help get their beloved home back. You can help with a donation by clicking here.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe fire destroyed their home and many of their personal belongings,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSadly, the family did not have insurance cover and are now facing the overwhelming challenge of rebuilding their lives, replacing essential items, and finding stability after this heartbreaking event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councillor Bonner has set up a GoFundMe to help with urgent and essential works, replacing necessary items, and supporting them as they try to put the pieces together.<\/p>\n

Councillor Bonner, who has been living in the area for over 20 years, said: \u201cThe local community has really rallied around, but now we need to step back and see what is needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe family are in shock and they will take a while to realise the devastating loss. It will take a lot of money to get them back on track again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAny donation, no matter how small, will make a meaningful difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Donegal shirt, still wrapped in protective plastic, that managed to survive the blaze, was purchased by the Quinns at an auction in Ashbourne.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere wasn\u2019t even the smell of smoke off it,\u201d Councillor Quinn says. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it. I went down to see the damage and Conal said to me: \u2018Jesus you wouldn\u2019t believe this\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A signed Donegal GAA jersey was all that remained when a County Meath family lost their home in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[243428,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-576973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-a-gofundme-has-been-launched-to-help-an-ashbourne-family-whose-home-was-gutted-by-fire-all-that-survived-was-a-donegal-gaa-jersey","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576973","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=576973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}