Donegal (Irish: Dún na nGall) is a county in the northwest of Ireland. It is one of three counties in the province of Ulster that did not become part of Northern Ireland. The name comes from the Irish, meaning “the fort of the foreigners” (a reference to the Vikings). When first created, it was sometimes referred to as County Tyrconnel (Irish: Tír Chonaill), after the Tyrconnel earldom it succeeded.