Sport

Launch of Denis Hurley book Cork Hurling: Game of My Life

I was delighted to launch Denis Hurley’s book Cork Hurling: Game of My Life with Denis in the lovely Cork Waterstone’s in Patrick Street. It was a really enjoyable event, especially after the tough two years we have put in, losing out on so much. Thanks to Denis and Liam Hayes from Hero Books for asking me to be there. There was a great crowd there including several hurlers who feature in the book. It’s a great book, I recommend it highly and it’s now available in all good bookshops. Here are some photos of the night, taken by the great John Breen of Waterstone’s.  

Essay Published in the Journal of Sports Literature

A new essay of mine ‘A Place Beyond Words’ has been published in the Fall 2020/Spring 2021 issue of Aethlon: The Journal of Sports Literature which was issued in March 2022.  Aethlon is a publication of the Sports Literature Association, which is centred at East Tennessee State University. It’s a print journal published twice yearly and publishes works about sport and sport literature, including original fiction and poetry, juried scholarly and critical essays, and book reviews. My essay is about the intersections between art and sport and features in my upcoming book,  The Game which will be published by Merrion Press. More information about my book here. More information about Aethlon here. 

Essay Published in the Journal of Sports Literature

I’m delighted that my essay ‘A Place Beyond Words’ has been published in Aethlon: The Journal of Sports Literature.  Aethlon is a publication of the Sports Literature Association, which is centred at East Tennessee State University. It’s a print journal published twice yearly and publishes works about sport and sport literature, including original fiction and poetry, juried scholarly and critical essays, and book reviews. My essay is about the intersections between art and sport and features in my upcoming book,  The Game which will be published by Merrion Press. More information about my book here. More information about Aethlon here. 

Time for another sports diet… maybe next week

Column in the The Irish Examiner about how much sport I consume. Featuring TJ Reid, Claire Melia, Tom Brady, Jonathan Wilson,  Raymond Carver, Jorge Valdano and Catherine Tate. You can read it here. 

My tribute to Canon Michael O’Brien published in The Irish Examiner

I was delighted that my personal tribute to Canon Michael O’Brien was published in The Irish Examiner. ‘The Canon’ coached  me on six teams between 1979 and 1984. The tribute revolves around The Fitzgibbon Cup of 1983 hosted by The Ulster University at Coleraine. You can read it here. Photo taken in Bellaghy after the win, courtesy of Mick Lyons. That’s me behind the cup.

The Game Listed as one of the 2022 Books to Look Out For

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.

My Next Book will be out in May!

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.

Piece in Cork Words 2: An Anthology of Contemporary Cork Writing

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.