Abandon hope all ye who enter here. This is the football championship. Thirty-two counties chase a ball around for four months and at the end, the Dubs always win.

I see that Australian sportsman Israel Folau got himself in hot water over the last few weeks with remarks about gay people.

This current Galway outfit must be totally tuned in from the first whistle or they can take an awful pasting against Kerry, writes Ray Silke.

Big three, big four, two groups of 16, three tiers, and the Super 8. The GAA is all about the numbers at the minute, writes Oisín McConville.

Donegal's 2012 All-Ireland winner Eamon McGee has opened up on his former struggles with anxiety, panic attacks and alcohol, writes Jackie Cahill.

Donegal’s Marty O’Reilly insists that qualifying to face Dublin in an Allianz Football League final wouldn’t be viewed as a poisoned chalice.

Your stand-out Neil Gallagher memory? His virtuoso performance against Cork in the 2012 All-Ireland semi-final? Lifting the 2007 Division 1 cup as captain with a black eye due to a cut above it that required suturing, but no substitution? Bare-chested in Ballybofey having had his jersey ripped as he was sent off against Tyrone in 2015?

Keepers’ conundrum

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today

Eamon McGee admits he and his brother Neil were unwilling to sign a public statement suggested by the Donegal panel to back manager Jim McGuinness in the wake of the fallout with former star, Kevin Cassidy, in 2011.

A specially convened sitting of the Donegal county committee last night ratified Rory Gallagher as senior team manager for another three years, with an option of a fourth.

Dublin 1-15 Donegal 1-10: Grace under fire wouldn’t be the aptest way to sum up this latest addition to Dublin’s unbeaten league and championship run of 26 matches. In football terms, Donegal were hardly pyromaniacs and as regards discipline Jim Gavin’s side weren’t so poised.

Kerry await on August 28.

Donegal and Monaghan will meet next weekend after a Conor McManus free levelled this Ulster semi-final deep in additional time.

Neil McGee believes Donegal have more depth than at any other time in the previous five seasons under Jim McGuinness and Rory Gallagher.

Former Tyrone star Brian McGuigan claims Kerry would have won the 2011 All-Ireland final had Eamonn Fitzmaurice been in charge of them.

“Lost my appeal to the red card I got in club game. Irony: any appeal I’ve won in the past I was as guilty as sin. The one time I’m innocent, I lose.” - Eamon McGee @EamonMcGee

Donegal boss Rory Gallagher admits he is “a lot more optimistic” on the injury front, as his side prepare to face Mayo in the All-Ireland quarter-final on Saturday.

Caitríona McBride went to school with Eamon McGee, where she had to defend her pencil case from the future Donegal defender. They met recently to bring his story up to date.

Of the three televised games this weekend, the most difficult match to officiate was the Donegal v Derry Ulster semi-final in Clones.

The night they returned to Donegal Town having reclaimed the Anglo-Celt Cup last July, Eamon McGee was content on the peripheries.

The lid was flipped. The usually unruffled Brian McEniff had blown his right off.

Thank God for the Ulster Championship! High intensity warfare packed with so many off-the-ball incidents that no amount of cameramen, never mind referees and officials, could possibly identify the culprits.

There’s little in sport as distasteful, as sly and scurrilous sledging, yet little as smile-inducing as a bit of witty in-game trash-talking either.

The GAA have no issue with the GPA’s plans this week to advocate a yes vote in the marriage referendum on May 22.

Colm O’Neill will say goals have never come easy to him but then why does scoring them seem more natural to him than most others? 

Last week, in these pages, it was interesting to read the thoughts of Donegal footballer Eamon McGee on the upcoming marriage referendum.

World champion athlete turned Fine Gael senator Eamonn Coghlan has said he backs marriage equality as a way to ease prejudice after his gay son was subjected to violent attacks.

Donegal 1-4, Monaghan 0-9: At half-time yesterday at O’Donnell Park in Letterkenny, the stadium announcer informed the crowd that Mark English had won silver in the 800m at the European Indoor Athletic Championships in Prague.

Donegal 1-4, Monaghan 0-9:

They may have lost their All-Ireland crown in 2014 but Dublin still dominate our team of the last five years.

Last week, just before he would inspire Austin Stacks to their first county title in 20 years and win the right to captain Kerry in 2015, Kieran Donaghy ran a five-day basketball camp for 150 kids in his hometown of Tralee.

All-Ireland SFC Final

It’s a mark of Eamonn Fitzmaurice’s leadership that, at least up until the team was released on Thursday night, nobody made a big deal of their being so many final debutants in his group.

Corner-back Eamon McGee may have a fear of flying but that’s not the reason Donegal will be taking the bus to Croke Park this weekend.

Take a look back on the Jimmy’s Winning Matches documentary — it’s on YouTube — and it’s clear Donegal in 2012 took more stock out of beating Kerry than any other game.