Michael Murphy will lead Donegal into an Ulster senior football championship final for the eighth time on Sunday hoping to get his hands on the Anglo-Celt Cup for the fifth time.

Shane O’Donnell has rejoined the Clare senior hurling panel following his return from Harvard University last week.

“Ah, there’s nothing hi. A few factories up there in the Industrial Estate. Apart from that, you have the few pubs and shops and that’s it. Things just seem to be closing down every few months. It’s getting worse instead of getting better.”

Two years ago, Gaoth Dobhair were beaten by 12 points in the Donegal Championship and walked out of the ground a broken team. Mervyn O’Donnell took over as manager and made one pledge — that he was going to restore honesty to the club.

Kevin Cassidy is fearful Diarmuid Connolly will be a marked man in the Massachusetts senior football championship as he looks set to join Donegal Boston.

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.

One former Donegal county man said it this week about Mickey Moran and his spell in the county that brought them to an All-Ireland quarter-final in 2002.

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.

Kevin Cassidy has called on Rory Gallagher to change Donegal’s defensive style to make them more competitive.

For those of you who initially thought last Sunday’s Ulster final was another desecration of what was once known as Gaelic football, a question — name a game in recent memory in which both teams helped serve up a greater number of exceptional long-range points than what Tyrone and Donegal did in Clones?

After Donegal beat Cork in Ballyshannon in February, Neil McGee walked up the steps of the Aodh Ruadh clubhouse to speak to journalists. Concluding his duties, he wanted to know one result – how did Tyrone, a league lower, fare against Galway. “Good to know how the neighbours are getting on,” he smiled.

Management is something that appeals to Tomás Ó Sé but he intends sticking to media work for the foreseeable future.

Betrayal. It’s the one word that leaps out from the pages of Jim McGuinness’ book Until Victory Always — A Memoir.

Michael Murphy mightn’t have been happy with the performance but he was at least content in the knowledge last Saturday has dispelled some of the perceptions that Donegal were going to stroll to another Ulster championship.

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

Kevin Cassidy has joked Jim McGuinness must not have signed the confidentiality agreement he asked players to put their names to during his time as Donegal manager after learning the 2012 All-Ireland winning boss is bringing out a book later this year.

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

1. Eamonn Fitzmaurice and the letters

Kieran Shannon looks back at three epic encounters on Sunday, June 26, 2011 that proved to be momentous moments in shaping the destinies of three provincial championships.

Former Meath star Tommy Dowd feels it may not be a major negative if the county miss out on promotion to Division 1 this weekend.

Ireland’s first quintuplets felt a bit awkward returning to the centre of attention again yesterday.

Apart from being pointless after three games, if Clare ever needed a win they were never more desperate for a result after Davy O’Halloran’s comments in a newspaper interview on Saturday morning.

The Donegal SFC began with a bang this weekend with Kilcar defeating the 2013 champions Glenswilly.

To justly appreciate the phenomenon that has been Jim McGuinness’s tenure with Donegal it would be an idea to ponder this question: in which of his four years in charge do you think he’s done the best coaching job?

This weekend three years ago Kevin Cassidy played in the infamous/immortal Donegal-Dublin All-Ireland semi-final. He did not know at the time it would be his last game for the county. But since his fallout with Jim McGuinness life went on, and he moved on.

Kevin Cassidy has described Jim McGuinness’ comparison of Dublin with Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea as "silly".

Only those who were in Crossmaglen on June 26 2010 can fully appreciate what Jim McGuinness achieved the following season.

Down the years there was a natural trepidation ingrained in Donegal supporters looking ahead to the next championship fixture.

At the time, it was labelled the night of the long knives. Brian McIver’s status as Donegal senior team manager wasn’t even on the agenda at the September 2008 sitting of county committee; he was just in Ballybofey to give his annual report.

Former Donegal footballer Kevin Cassidy has speculated that Mark McHugh may have quit the county’s panel as a result of Rory Gallagher’s departure or due to a worsening relationship with manager Jim McGuinness.

Sometimes everything aligns nicely and offers you a way of seeing how the world works.

Brendan Devenney believes scrapping the provincial championships will bring an end to the club fixtures controversy.

In the dark recesses of January, few would say football is any fun — but then less and less of the current crop remember when it was actually enjoyable.

Kevin Cassidy admits he is glad to be a manager and not a player in Donegal after the decision to push back next year’s county championship until the county exits the All-Ireland SFC.

Kevin Cassidy crept into Donal Óg Cusack’s thoughts a lot last September, while Donegal were making their All-Ireland football title breakthrough without their former captain.

ULSTER SFC FINAL:

I would find it very hard to split the difference in some interviews.

Getting information out of South Armagh men isn’t easy.