Days and Nights in the GAA

This is the Life

A provocative look at how grassroots GAA interacts with life in Ireland, from the wittiest Gaelic games pundit at work today 
 
The GAA is Ireland's largest civil society organisation, woven into the fabric of families and communities - and yet most books about Gaelic games focus on the greatest players and inter-county teams. This is the Life is a book about the 99%: a witty and provocative look at grassroots GAA from the most intelligent and interesting Gaelic games pundit at work today. 
 
Ciarán Murphy - of Second Captains and the Irish Times - has an unmatched feel for the timeless elements of this world and a finger on the pulse of change. He looks at the plight of rural clubs that are losing their players to the cities - and he does so not only as a journalist but as a footballer who made the same move himself. He writes about working as an assistant in the clothing shop owned by the family of Jarlath Fallon - both Ciarán's sporting hero and the local postman. And he looks a things we usually prefer not to talk about, like the role of social class in the GAA. 
 
This is the Life is a book about the places the GAA comes from, the places it can take a person, and the things that make a local club worth fighting for. 
 
'There is a deep understanding of the way the GAA works at every level … a brilliant read from start to finish’ Paul Rouse, The Irish Examiner

Terrific . . . one of the most enjoyable sports books I've come across in a long time

Brilliantly written . . . an absolute joy to read

What makes this book so different to the plethora of GAA tomes is [how] this chronicles life for the rest of us . . . Murphy makes you realise that everyday GAA experiences are unique

A revelation . . . This is the Life indeed

Captures the history of the GAA, the heights it can propel regular people to, and what makes a local club so important

There is a deep understanding of the way the GAA works at every level … a brilliant read from start to finish

The GAA is Ireland's largest civil society organisation, woven into the fabric of families and communities - and yet most books about Gaelic games focus on the greatest players and inter-county teams. This is the Life is a book about the 99%: a witty and provocative look at grassroots GAA from the most intelligent and interesting Gaelic games pundit at work today. 
 
Ciarán Murphy - of Second Captains and the Irish Times - has an unmatched feel for the timeless elements of this world and a finger on the pulse of change. He looks at the plight of rural clubs that are losing their players to the cities - and he does so not only as a journalist but as a footballer who made the same move himself. He writes about working as an assistant in the clothing shop owned by the family of Jarlath Fallon - both Ciarán's sporting hero and the local postman. And he looks a things we usually prefer not to talk about, like the role of social class in the GAA. 
 
This is the Life is a book about the places the GAA comes from, the places it can take a person, and theings that make a local club worth fighting for.

Ciarán Murphy

Murphy's great gift as a storyteller is an ability to see things in the round

No matter if you're a die-hard hurling fanatic or you've never seen a match, Old Parish is well worth a read.

Notes on Hurling

Hurling is Ireland’s national game – a source of fascination and pride, even to people who have never played it. Ciarán Murphy, a lifelong club footballer, used to be one of those people. Then he spent a summer trying to play hurling with a tiny club in the West Waterford Gaeltacht. Along the way he embarked on a quest to understand the history, geography and mystique of this extraordinary sport. 
 
Old Parish is the club of Ciarán’s father, a club where relatives of his are still deeply involved, and possibly the only place brave (or stupid) enough to take on a forty-one-year-old newcomer to the game. Predictably (and at times hilariously), Ciarán finds out just how difficult a sport hurling is to pick up when you’re in your sporting dotage, up against men who’ve played it since childhood. 
 
Ciarán also explores why hurling is played in only half the country; he investigates the origins of hurling clubs’ antipathy to football and the difficulties of establishing hurling in new areas; he looks into the mysteries of hurley-making; and he seeks to understand why, when a hurling legend refers to the sport as ‘the greatest game ever played by any man’, he has to be taken seriously. 
 
Anyone who has ever watched hurling knows that it is something unique and extraordinary. Old Parish explains why.

Ciarán Murphy

Praise for Old Parish

Murphy's great gift as a storyteller is an ability to see things in the round

Entertaining and thoughtful

No matter if you're a die-hard hurling fanatic or you've never seen a match, Old Parish is well worth a read.

Murphy's great gift as a storyteller is an ability to see things in the round

Entertaining and thoughtful

No matter if you're a die-hard hurling fanatic or you've never seen a match, Old Parish is well worth a read.

Murphy's great gift as a storyteller is an ability to see things in the round

Entertaining and thoughtful

No matter if you're a die-hard hurling fanatic or you've never seen a match, Old Parish is well worth a read.

Books by Ciarán Murphy

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter