May, 2021 I wrote a piece for the Irish Examiner welcoming hurling back again for 2021. ‘I wanted to celebrate the return of hurling but behind a sense of juxtaposition. The one Martin Scorsese created when he overlaid the sublime music of the ‘Intermezzo’ from Cavalleria Rusticana on Jake LaMotta’s brutality and violence in Raging Bull.’
May 2021 I wrote a piece for the Irish Examiner about my longing to go to matches again as part of the crowd. ‘As we face into a new GAA season with uncertainty about fans at games we’re all wondering: will sport ever be normal again? And what will that normal be?’
March, 2021. Piece in the Irish Examiner on the 40th anniversary of UCC’s Fitzgibbon Cup win of 1981 in Croke Park when I was playing for College. I interview four old team mates: Nicky English, John Grainger, Mick Lyons and Noel Leonard and pay tribute to our old friend and mentor, Dan Beechinor.
February, 2021. Column in the Irish Examiner, where I write about loss, forgetting and hope in sport. In that order. Why a bad memory is one of the most important qualities to enjoy sport, year in, year out.
January, 2021 Column in the Irish Examiner, where I write about the Liverpool and Manchester United rivalry and what it has meant to me down the years. I also pay tribute to my great friend Tom Abernethy, whom we lost in March, 2020 and whom I miss terribly, especially when United are playing.
December, 2020. I have a short piece on my sporting hero of 2020. This is part of a long read where 30 writers select somebody who made the terrible year of 2020 a little bit better for others. My hero is one of the great volunteers in sport who make sport possible, especially in tough times. Read it here.
I did an interview with the great hurler Gerald McCarthy for an Irish Examiner special supplement on the centenary of the birth of Christy Ring. It was lovely to meet and chat with the great man in his Cork city shop and hear his recollections of Christy Ring. Read it here.
An article in the Irish Examiner on the first club rugby match since February, due to Covid-19. On the rightness and relief of live rugby’s return to Musgrave Park even in the middle of a pandemic with all sorts of restrictions. Read it here.
A short piece in the Irish Examiner with others about the impact of Covid-19 on the arts and how we need to support artists to protect the arts in these dreadful times. Read it here.
I really enjoyed being interviewed by Marjorie Brennan for the Irish Examiner talking about Whatever it Takes, winning the Cork One City One Book award and all things writing. We talked about my first book, The First Sunday in September and sports fiction, too.
