Tadhg Coakley

The Game

The Game on Summer Read Lists

24 July 2022

The Game has been included on two Summer Read lists. In The Irish Times: From summer love to abject terror: The books to read on holidays this year Fiction and history, Irish and international … a feast of reading for summer 2022 Click here to read.    Seeking a summer read? Critics and authors pick the best books of 2022 so far. Reading recommendations from Anne Enright, Colm Tóibín, Fintan O’Toole and many more. Click here to read.   An Post published their Top 5 Summer Reads with help from Kenny’s Bookshop, Galway and The Game was included along with some stunning new Irish books.  Here they are:

The West Cork Literary Festival

15 July 2022

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:  

Praise for The Game

9 July 2022

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.’

Interviews with Cork’s96fm and Midwest Radio

27 June 2022

I was delighted to have been interviewed by Elmarie Mawe on Cork’s96fm Arts House programme. The great crime writer Cathrine Kirwan (and my great pal) was with me in the studio. You can listen back here.    Also interviewed by John Rea on Midwest Radio’ Sunday Show, talking about The Game on Sunday June 26th at 2.30pm.  You can listen back here (for a week, go to Sunday 2:30pm).    Also interviewed (briefly) by PJ Coogan with Eimear O’Herlihy on the Cork’s 96fm Opinion Line about the West Cork Literary Festival.  You can listen back here. 

The Game listed by Irish Independent

27 June 2022

Lovely to see The Game on the Irish Independent list of: ‘The best books to read on your summer holidays’ Máire Treasa Ní Cheallaigh said: ‘Coakley helped me rediscover the soul of sport, while painting a rich tapestry of pivotal sporting moments in his own life. [The Game] is brave, deceptively deep, full of life lessons, and introspection in between trips to games. The dark side of sport is dissected, too … It’s all wrapped up in an unavoidable poignancy.’ Full list of books here.

Interviews on Radio Kerry and Leeside Lives Podcast

15 June 2022

Two recent interviews: Big thanks for Donal Barry for interviewing me on his show Terrace Talk on Kerry Radio. You can listen back here, I appear at 1:28. Thanks also to Jordan McCarthy for interviewing me on his Leeside Lives Podcast. You can listen back here. 

Kieran Shannon Column about The Game

14 June 2022

This piece about The Game by the great sportswriter Kieran Shannon of the Irish Examiner is wonderful and I’m very grateful for it. It’s entitled: Capturing the fleeting, fantastic, essence of sport: It’s all a part of The Game. You can read it here. 

Extracts from The Game

14 June 2022

Thanks to all those publications who published extracts to The Game. You can read them all below: From the essay ‘Kisses’ in The Irish Times Magazine.  From the essay ‘Ekstasis’ in The42.ie and The Journal. From the essay ‘Dark Passions’ (updated) in The Sunday Independent. From the essay ‘Initiations – Longing to Belong’ in The Irish Examiner. From the essay ‘A Place Beyond Words’ on the RTÉ website. 

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