It was lovely to see my next book, The Game: A Lifetime Inside and Outside the White Lines listed in TheJournal.ie and The Irish Times as one of those to look out for in 2022. In such good company, it’s going to be an amazing year of writing.
I’m delighted to announce that my next book The Game: A Lifetime Inside and Outside the White Lines will be published by Merrion Press in May 2022. The book is a hybrid, a multifaceted meditation on sport. It is part memoir, outlining my time as a player and fan of sport and how it has shaped my life. It is also a book of essays critiquing several aspects of sport, both good and bad, and showing its influence in the wider world. It is also a work of auto-fiction, wherein I try use my novelistic abilities to chart narratives, personal and public. It is, finally, a work of scholarship, interweaving my own view of a life spent inside and outside the white lines with the cultural discourse of previous writers and thinkers on the many themes explored.
I was delighted to have my short essay: ‘Celebrating the Return of Hurling in a Strange Time’ in Cork Words 2: An Anthology of Contemporary Cork Writing among so many great Cork writers. It’s about the return of hope in a dark time. The book is available in Waterstones Cork and Cork City Libraries. The piece was previously published in The Irish Examiner.
I was delighted my little tribute to Diego Armanda Maradona was published in the 2021 Holly Bough. It really is a Cork institution.
I was delighted that my sports essay ‘Possession’ from Winter Papers featured on on the RTÉ Radio 1 arts show Arena. The programme was devoted to Winter Papers 7 and Billy O’Callaghan kindly picked out my essay to discuss. You can listen back here (‘Possession’ appears at 43:52).
I was delighted that my piece Boring pubs, jumpy legs, Midleton and Glen Rovers: A boy watches his first county final was picked by those lovely people at The42.ie as one of their Sportswriting of the Week choices – in some heady company. You can read the four selections here.
I’m delighted that my sports essay ‘Possession’ was published in the 2021 version of The Winter Papers. The Winter Papers is one of the highlights of the year in the world of Irish literature and it’s wonderful to be part of it. Thanks to Kevin Barry and Olivia Smith for this great honour. The Winter Papers is now on sale in all good bookshops or here.
The video of my interview with Julianne McKeigue of the Croke Park GAA Museum, marking the selection of The First Sunday in September as the Museum Book Club Book of the Month in their book club. I really enjoyed the chat with Julianne. You can watch the interview here.
I’m delighted to be part of Mallow Arts Festival 2021 with an event at Mallow GAA Complex at Carrigoon on Sunday October 30th. Very much looking forward to meeting old friends and talking about my writing.
I did an interview with Denis Hurley for The Echo about The First Sunday in September being the Croke Park GAA Museum’s Book Club Choice for October 2021. You can read it here.
