I really enjoyed my chat with Dara Ó Cinnéide for his new series Na Goirt Órga (The Fields of Gold) is being broadcast on TG4. It is about sports stadiums all around the world and what they mean. You can read about it here.
A column in the Irish Examiner about the possible takeover of Manchester United by Qatar. Also a magical night in Anfield and a history book by Siobhán Doyle. You can read it here.
I wrote a column for the Irish Examiner about the joy of sport. From the Irish rugby team to Cork v Galway hurling in Pearce Stadium. The Sigerson Final, the children on the pitch in Salthill, a lot to be thankful for. You can read it here.
The Game has been picked as joint book of the year on the iconic Second Captains. The brilliant Rodfather by Roddy Collins and Paul Howard was the other choice. What blew me away more was the discussion about the book by Eoin McDevitt, Ciarán Murphy, Malachy Clerkin (of the Irish Times) and Sinéad O’Carroll of theJournal.ie. You can listen to the show here. It’s all excellent, but the discussion of The Game begins at minute 45.
I’m thrilled that The Game has been shortlisted for Irish Sports Book of the Year in the An Post Irish Book Awards. Thanks so much to the An Post selection committee. The Game is listed beside five other outstanding books, it’s such an honour to be included. Everyone is now being asked to cast their votes for their favourite books of the year on the An Post Irish Book Awards website www.anpostirishbookawards.ie. All voters will be entered into a prize draw to win one of five €100 National Book Token vouchers. Voting closes on November 10th. The winners will be announced on Wednesday, 23rd November at a ceremony in the Convention Centre in Dublin. Some photos from an event in Dublin’s GPO, announcing the shortlists.
I picked the best sporting images of the Summer for a piece in the Irish Examiner. You can read it here.
I was delighted to be part of Heritage Week 2022 thanks to Cork City Libraries. The event Team-Talk featured myself and Eimear Ryan, the author of Holding her Breath among many achievements. It was moderated brilliantly by Jordan McCarthy of Cork City Libraries and was really well attended. Some photos.
A column on how much All-Ireland Finals mean to us. Especially our first one. You can read it here.
I was thrilled to feature at the West Cork Literary Festival of 2022. My event with Ashley Hickson-Lovence (the author of the stunning novel Your Show) and Ciarán Murphy (of Second Captains and The Irish Times) was great fun and really well-attended. You can watch it back here. As well as my own event, I moderated two other sessions, the first with the brilliant crimes writers Catherine Kirwan (latest book: Cruel Deeds) and Jane Casey (latest book: The Killing Kind). My third event was at the lovely Bantry House with the novelist Jenifer deBie, whose latest book, Heretic, is out now. Some photos:
I’m so grateful for the generosity of people and for the kind words they have said about The Game. Some of the praise it has received: Donal Ryan: ‘This is a towering work. … The essays ‘Miracles’ and ‘Kisses’ are two of the most beautiful, poignant and heartfelt pieces of writing I’ve ever read. Tadhg is clear-eyed, intelligent, and unrelentingly honest about the darkness that pervades the business of sport and its capacity to arouse our basest instincts … He asks the hardest of questions and delivers unflinchingly honest answers. This is no paean … it is a brilliantly forensic and startlingly objective account of the ways that sport at once transcends, debases and delineates our humanity. Tadhg admits to feeling like an outsider but he is firmly and undeniably in the inner circle of the great sportswriters. And he is clearly, though he’d probably deny it, the truest of sportsmen.’
