Joseph Delaney used to be an English teacher, before becoming the best-selling author of the Spook's series, which has been published in 30 countries and sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide. The first book, The Spook's Apprentice, was adapted into a major motion picture starring Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore.

Joseph Delaney

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Christy O'Connor

This chronicle of a year in the life of St Joseph's Doora-Barefield GAA club in Co. Clare - which won the William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year award for 2010 - breaks new ground in Irish sportswriting. Christy O'Connor, a national GAA correspondent who has also been the St Joseph's senior team goalkeeper for 20 years, tells this story with unflinching honesty:    a fly-on-the-wall tale of the effort, agony and struggles that define the journey undertaken every season by every club side. This is grassroots GAA at its purest and rawest, a great story brilliantly told.

The Club

Mark Tighe

Paul Rowan

Over the course of fifteen years, John Delaney ran the Football Association of Ireland as his own personal fiefdom. He had his critics, but his power was never seriously challenged until last year, when Mark Tighe and Paul Rowan published a sequence of stories in the Sunday Times containing damaging revelations about his personal compensation and the parlous financial situation of the FAI. Delaney's reputation as a great financial manager was left in tatters. He resigned under pressure, and the FAI was left hoping for a massive bail-out from the Irish taxpayer. 
 
In Champagne Football, Tighe and Rowan dig deep into the story of Delaney's career and of the FAI's slide into ruin. They show how he surrounded himself with people whose personal loyalty he could count on, and a board that failed to notice that the association's finances were shot. They detail Delaney's skilful cultivation of opinion-formers outside the FAI. And they document the culture of excess that Delaney presided over and benefited from, to the detriment of the organization he led. 
 
Champagne Football is a gripping, sometimes darkly hilarious and often enraging piece of reporting by the award-winning journalists who finally pulled back the curtain on the FAI's mismanagement.

Champagne Football

John Delaney and the Betrayal of Irish Football: The Inside Story

Roddy Collins

Paul Howard

Roddy Collins is a football man - now in the sixth decade of a career as a player (at sixteen clubs), manager (twelve clubs) and commentator. And he is a funny man: an unequalled raconteur with a sharp eye for the absurdities of the professional game and spectacular recall. He has made friends wherever he has gone, along with some high-quality enemies. When John Delaney said he could get Roddy a job if he'd just stop criticising him, Roddy replied that he'd 'rather dig holes in the road'. 
 
Now, with the brilliant Paul Howard, Roddy puts it all down on paper for the first time - the adventures, the rows and the craic - in what is not only one of the funniest but also one of the most eye-opening books ever written about professional football.

The Rodfather

Inside the Beautiful (Ugly, Ridiculous, Hilarious) Game

Joe Schmidt

In the autumn of 2010, a little-known New Zealander called Joe Schmidt took over as head coach at Leinster. He had never been in charge of a professional team. After Leinster lost three of their first four games, a prominent Irish rugby pundit speculated that Schmidt had 'lost the dressing room'. 
 
Nine years on, Joe Schmidt has stepped down as Ireland coach having achieved success on a scale never before seen in Irish rugby. Two Heineken Cups in three seasons with Leinster. Three Six Nations championships in six seasons with Ireland, including the Grand Slam in 2018. And a host of firsts: the first Irish victory in South Africa; the first Irish defeat of the All Blacks, and then a second; and Ireland's first number 1 world ranking. 
 
Along the way, Schmidt became a byword for precision and focus in coaching, remarkable attention to detail and the highest of standards. But who is Joe Schmidt? In Ordinary Joe, Schmidt tells the story of his life and influences: the experiences and management ideas that made him the coach, and the man, that he is today. And his diaries of the 2018 Grand Slam and the 2019 Rugby World Cup provide a brilliantly intimate insight into the stresses and joys of coaching a national team in victory and defeat. 
 
From the small towns in New Zealand's North Island where he played barefoot rugby and jostled around the dinner table with seven siblings, to the training grounds and video rooms where he consistently kept his teams a step ahead of the opposition, Ordinary Joe reveals an ordinary man who has helped his teams to achieve extraordinary things.

Ordinary Joe

Clare Balding

In Clare Balding's family, walking just took too long - she galloped through the countryside and she galloped through life. 
 
Then, starting out in her broadcasting career, she was asked to present a series discovering the glories of Britain and Ireland. Clare caught the walking bug. 
 
Now she wants her family to share some of that pleasure. She and her brother Andrew are determined to conquer the Wayfarer's Walk, a 71 mile route. What could possibly go wrong? 
 
This is a story of paths and people, of (mis)adventures, and of life-changing rambles. This is Clare's story of walking home.

Walking Home

Great British Adventures . . . and Other Rambles

My Family and Other Rambles

Tom Humphries

Dublin and Kerry. They were the aristocrats of Gaelic football, with over fifty All-Ireland titles between them, but as the 1974 season dawned, the fans of these two great counties could not have guessed what lay ahead. For the first time, Tom Humphries tells the full story of Dublin and Kerry, on and off the field, over the decade that followed &mdash; a decade defined by a rivalry that lifted the sport to heights of drama and popularity that it had never known before.

Dublin v Kerry

Geordan Murphy

Geordan Murphy does not come from the leafy suburbs of south Dublin or the rugby hotbeds of Limerick or Cork. As a teenager he played Gaelic football for Kildare minors. But his greatest love, and his true genius, was for rugby. 
 
Playing outhalf, he led Newbridge College to the Leinster schools cup final - and was then left off the Irish schools team that toured Australia. 'He's not good enough,' a selector told his father. 'He's too slow.' Leinster didn't show much interest either, and so it was that a skinny but gifted kid from Naas ended up starting his club career at England's leading club, Leicester. 
 
Now nearing the end of a career that has seen him win over seventy Ireland caps - a number that a great many supporters and pundits believe should be considerably higher - Geordan Murphy tells his own story for the first time. It is a tale of phenomenal highs (including a Grand Slam and two Heineken Cups) and agonizing lows - none worse than the broken leg he suffered on the eve of the 2003 World Cup, when he was at the very top of his game. 
 
The Outsider is a frank, colourful chronicle of a career by a richly talented rugby player who developed, along the way, into a thinking man's rugby player.

The Outsider

'I had spent most of my childhood thinking I was a dog, and suspect I had aged in dog years. By the time I was ten I had discovered the pain of unbearable loss. I had felt joy and jealousy. Most important of all, I knew how to love and how to let myself be loved. All these things I learnt through animals. Horses and dogs were my family and my friends. This is their story as much as it is mine' 
 
Clare Balding grew up in a rather unusual household. Her father a champion trainer, she shared her life with more than 100 thoroughbred racehorses, mares, foals and ponies, as well as an ever-present pack of boxers and lurchers. As a toddler she would happily ride the legendary Mill Reef and take breakfast with the Queen. 
 
She and her younger brother came very low down the pecking order. Left to their own devices, they had to learn life's toughest lessons through the animals, and through their adventures in the stables and the idyllic Hampshire Downs. From the protective Candy to the pot-bellied Valkyrie and the frisky Hattie, each horse and each dog had their own character and their own special part to play. 
 
The running family joke was that "women ain't people". Clare has to prove them wrong, to make her voice heard - but first she had to make sure she had something to say. 
 
My Animals and Other Family is a funny, brave, tender story of self-discovery.

My Animals and Other Family

Liam O’Callaghan

Liam O'Callaghan's revelatory Blood and Thunder shows that the rise of Irish rugby is inextricable from the tensions, debates and divisions – of politics, religion and class – that have defined modern Irish history. 
 
Despite the political partition of the island, Ireland competes at rugby internationally with an all-island team – and with a bespoke anthem that nobody loves but everyone tolerates. Ireland has become a leading rugby nation despite its tiny population and the fact that the sport is only the fourth most popular team game on the island by participation. 
 
In Blood and Thunder, O’Callaghan traces the dramatic evolution whereby a rugby nation that was deeply attached to amateurism has made such a dramatic success of professionalism. From the sequence of events that led Ireland's private Catholic secondary schools to embrace rugby, to the controversies and crises that have shaken Irish rugby – including the Northern Troubles, the Belfast rape trial, and the rising toll of head injuries – Blood and Thunder tells the rich and fascinating story of Irish rugby. 
 
Blood and Thunder is more than a social and political history of Irish rugby. It is also a shadow-history of modern Ireland, rooted in brilliant original research and packed with terrific stories.

Blood And Thunder

Rugby and Irish Life: A History

Micheal O Muircheartaigh

Miche&aacute;l &Oacute; Muircheartaigh is best known as the voice of the GAA. But his interests and enthusiasms &ndash; sporting and non-sporting &ndash; go far beyond the fields of Gaelic games. In his new book, the follow-up to his bestselling memoir From D&uacute;n S&iacute;on to Croke Park, Miche&aacute;l brings us along on his travels around the world, and to the villages, townlands and sporting fields of the four provinces of Ireland. He recalls great days at the races and in sporting stadiums big and small, and great nights in the dance halls. Above all, he tells the stories of these places and the people he has encountered there &ndash; stories told as only Miche&aacute;l can tell them.

From Borroloola to Mangerton Mountain

Travels and Stories from Ireland's Most Beloved Broadcaster

Alistair Brownlee

Jonathan Brownlee

This is the story of how two skinny lads from west Yorkshire became the best triathletes in the world. 
 
Meet the Brownlees: Olympic Champion Alistair, World Champion Jonny. Brothers, training partners, rivals. They have obliterated the competition and set new standards for swimming, biking and running. 
 
In this revealing, often very funny book they take us inside their world. It's a riveting story of the races and their rivalry, as well as an inspiring guide to swimming, cycling and running. With the Brownlees in your corner, you'll do more than you ever thought possible.

Swim, Bike, Run

Our Triathlon Story

Seán Óg Ó hAilpín

Seán Óg Ó hAilpín is a one-of-a-kind Irish sportsman, the iconic hurler of his generation. He became synonymous with Cork hurling during a period when the Rebel County reached the highest of highs and was regularly gripped by controversy. 
 
 All of this would have seemed pretty unlikely when Seán Óg was born in Fiji in 1977. Now, Seán Óg tells his own story in his own words - a story every GAA fan has been waiting to read. Full of frank insights, Seán Óg's autobiography is not just an essential sporting story; it is an essential Irish story.

The Autobiography

Mark Schultz

David Thomas

On 22nd January 1996 Dave Schultz, Olympic gold medallist and wrestling's golden boy, was shot in the back by John E. du Pont at the famed Foxcatcher estate in Pennsylvania. That started a two day siege at the ranch before the du Pont family heir was finally captured. 
 
Foxcatcher is Mark Schultz's vivid portrait of the complex relationship he and his brother had with du Pont, a man whose catastrophic break from reality lead to tragedy. No one knows the inside story of what went on behind the scenes at Foxcatcher Farms - and inside John du Pont's head - better than Mark Schultz, also an Olympic gold medalist and a part of the Foxcatcher team.

Foxcatcher

A True Story of Murder, Madness and the Quest for Olympic Gold

Sean O'Brien

'He's one of the best players I've ever played with. As a forward, I'd say he's the best' Johnny Sexton 
 
Seán O'Brien does not come from a traditional rugby background. He grew up on a farm in Tullow, far from the rugby hotbeds of Limerick and Cork or the fee-paying schools of Dublin. But as he made his way up through the ranks, it soon became clear that he was a very special player and a very special personality. 
 
Now, Seán O'Brien tells the remarkable and unlikely story of his rise to the highest levels of world rugby, and of a decade of success with Leinster, Ireland and the British and Irish Lions.

Fuel

Dónal Óg Cusack

Dónal Óg Cusack is the most compelling and controversial figure in the GAA today. In Come What May, Dónal Óg tells the story of the highs and lows on the pitch - including three All-Ireland victories - and off it with candour and courage. This is a book about friendship and loyalty and conflict and being true to yourself. It is unlike any other Irish sporting memoir ever published.

Come What May

Jim Stynes

In July 2009, Jim Stynes was diagnosed with cancer and given less than a year to live. The diagnosis caught him by surprise - he was 42, healthy, fit - and he didn't have time for illness: he was director of a foundation for young people, president of Melbourne Football Club, father of two primary school-aged kids, husband of Sam. Knowing his odds weren't good, but with so much to lose, Jim put everything he had into trying to beat the disease. 
 
He was well equipped to beat the odds - he'd been getting the most out of himself in every aspect of life since his childhood in Dublin. Jim's ability to use mind over matter and his will to succeed gave him two extra years on the prognosis. He had more than 25 tumours removed from his brain and stomach, and defied expectations time and time again. 
 
This book is Jim's legacy. Unflinching in its detail, Jim talks about what he found out about himself when things were at their worst - about what really counts when you're stacking it all up. It's a moving, inspiring story of a life lived fearlessly.

My Journey

Ciarán Murphy

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.

This is the Life

Days and Nights in the GAA

Johnny Sexton

No Irish rugby player has ever achieved more, or been a source of more inspiration to teammates and fans alike, than Johnny Sexton. 
 
The Sexton era - marked by four European Cups, four Six Nations championships (including two Grand Slams), a series win in New Zealand, two stints for Ireland at number 1 in the world, and the World Player of the Year award - was above all the time when Leinster and Ireland went from being underachievers to being overachievers. 
 
In his hotly anticipated autobiography, Johnny tells the story of his life and explores the sources of his unmatched will to win. Always outspoken on and off the field, Sexton offers an honest look at his childhood, his seemingly inauspicious early experiences in club and professional rugby, his relationships with key teammates and coaches (including Brian O'Driscoll, Paul O'Connell, Ronan O'Gara, Joe Schmidt and Andy Farrell), and his ideas about the game. 
 
Obsessed is more than just a brilliantly detailed account of a legendary playing career. It is also a work of deep self-exploration, tracing the psychological arc of a player who almost always felt embattled, who struggled with self-doubt, and who was still learning new lessons about being a team-mate and a leader into his late thirties. Intense, witty, perceptive and frank, Obsessed is an autobiography worthy of its author and the essential chronicle of an extraordinary era in Irish rugby.

Obsessed: The Autobiography

Shane Curran

In an age when sportsmen have perfected the art of saying nothing and suppressing any trace of personality, Shane 'Cake' Curran is a beacon of light: passionate, outspoken, utterly himself. As a rare two-code goalkeeper - for Roscommon in Gaelic football and for Athlone Town in soccer - he made his own rules, soloing mesmerisingly out of goal, inventing a new style of kicking tee, and famously poaching a penalty kick a teammate had lined up in the 1989 Connacht minor final. Brave, honest and hilarious, Cake tells the story of an Irish sportsman who has lived the dream in his own utterly distinctive way.

Cake

The Autobiography of a Passionate, Outspoken Sportsman and Entrepreneur

Neil Cotter

Dublin has been the dominant force in Gaelic football this decade, setting new standards of skill and efficiency. But it was not very long ago that the county was a byword for underachievement and disorganization. Every year from 1996 to 2010, the Dubs found new and creative ways of losing, of causing their fans to suffer, and of earning the scorn of the wider GAA public. 
 
Based on interviews with former players and coaches, Dublin: The Chaos Years tells the entertaining and sometimes scarcely believable story of how the Dubs managed to make such a hames of things over a period of fifteen years. It also traces the beginnings of the turnaround, as the bad habit of failure began to give way to a healthier culture. Full of frank, witty and sometimes outrageous stories and analysis from the people who were at the centre of it, Dublin: The Chaos Years is a book for every Gaelic football fan.

Dublin: The Chaos Years

How the Dubs Made a Mess of Things for So Long – and How They Turned It Around

John Leonard

John Leonard was a gifted Gaelic football goalkeeper who had the misfortune to reach his prime at the same time, and in the same county, as one of the all-time greats: Stephen Cluxton. Unless something happened to Clucko, Leonard was always going to be number 2. Of course, it didn't help that he had a problem with drink and drugs ... 
 
Dub Sub Confidential is John Leonard's vivid, witty and searingly honest account of his life in and out of sport. It is a GAA memoir like no other yet published - a book about how Gaelic games collide with real life. It is also a brilliant read from a remarkable personality.

Dub Sub Confidential

A Goalkeeper's Life with – and without – the Dubs

Henry Shefflin

In an era when Kilkenny established itself as the dominant force in hurling, one man stood out from a remarkable group of players: Henry Shefflin. Now widely regarded as the greatest player of all time, Shefflin has more All-Stars, Hurler of the Year awards and All-Ireland medals than any other hurler. But beneath the surface image of calm efficiency and effortless genius, his hurling life has included its share of bitter disappointments, agonizing injuries and intense rivalries. Now, in what will be an essential read, Shefflin tells his own story.

Duncan Ferguson

They don't make footballers - and football autobiographies - like this any more. The brutally honest, riotously entertaining story of the much-loved Everton legend and iconic Premier League bad boy. 
 
Praised by Wayne Rooney and Sir Alex Ferguson as one of the greatest and most passionate players to ever play the game, Duncan Ferguson, or Big Dunc as he is known, is larger than life in every sense. Measuring a towering 6 feet 4 inches in height, from the moment the striker emerged in British football in the 1990s, he was front and back page news. On the pitch, fans loved Duncan for his roguish charm, his thrilling goals and his total commitment in every game. Fighting tooth and nail, he was a born leader and took no prisoners. Like his rival Roy Keane, he played close to the limit, and often crossed it. Such as the time he was sentenced to 3 months in Glasgow’s toughest prison for headbutting an opponent – the first and only time a footballer has ever gone to jail for a crime committed on a football pitch. 
 
In BIG DUNC: The Upfront Autobiography, Duncan reveals, for the first time, the full story: the truth about his experiences in prison, his partying with African princes and Liverpool gangsters, his fighting with burglars, his making and losing a fortune, and how he turned his life around through his beloved Everton F.C.. In the process, the book sheds light on one of football’s most charismatic but notorious and enigmatic hardmen. Duncan has also been a manager and a coach. He is a pillar of the community in Merseyside, giving back to stricken children who share a similar tough upbringing to his own. Duncan's book takes readers on a rollercoaster ride of humour, drama and redemption. Buckle up.

BIG DUNC

The Upfront Autobiography

Giles Goodhead

Travelling football fanatic Giles Goodhead drags a series of unsuspecting friends and relatives to eight of the world's greatest derby games. From the noisiest (Barcelona) to the scariest (a toss-up between Istanbul and Glasgow) Us vs Them desribes the thrills of gate-crashing grudge matches in cities split by football. Eight unique trips add up to a highly entertaining commentary on football - and tribalism - around the world.

Us v Them

Journeys to the World's Greatest Football Derbies

John Kavanagh

Growing up in Dublin, John Kavanagh was a skinny kid who was frequently bullied. After suffering a bad beating when he intervened to help a man who was being attacked, he decided he had to learn to defend himself. Before long, he was training fighters in a tiny shed, and promoting the earliest mixed-martial arts events in Ireland. And then, a cocky young lad called Conor McGregor walked into his gym ... 
 
In Win or Learn, John Kavanagh tells his own remarkable life story - which is at the heart of the story of the extraordinary explosion of MMA in Ireland and globally. Kavanagh has become a guru to young men and women seeking to master the arts of combat. And as the trainer of the world's most charismatic male MMA star, he has become a magnet for talented fighters from all over the world. Kavanagh's portrait of Conor McGregor - who he has seen in his lowest moments, as well as in his greatest triumphs - is a revelation. 
 
What emerges from Win or Learn is a remarkable portrait of ambition, discipline, and persistence in the face of years and years of disappointment. It is a must read for every MMA fan - but also for anyone who wants to understand how to follow a dream and realize a vision.

Win or Learn

MMA, Conor McGregor and Me: A Trainer's Journey

Conor Niland

When Conor Niland was 16, he got the chance to hit with Serena Williams at Nick Bollettieri's famed tennis academy. Conor, the Irish junior number one, was feeling a bit homesick. Serena, also 16, already owned her own house beside the academy. 
 
Conor Niland knows what it's like when Roger Federer walks into the dressing room ('Ciao, bonjour, hello!'), and he has had the exquisitely terrible experience of facing Novak Djokovic in the world's biggest tennis stadium - while suffering from food poisoning. But he never reached the very top. 
 
The Racket is the story of pro tennis's 99%: the players who roam the globe in hope of climbing the rankings and squeaking into the Grand Slam tournaments. It brings us into a world where a few dozen super-rich players - travelling with coaches and physios - share a stage with lonely touring pros whose earnings barely cover their expenses. Painting a vivid picture of the social dynamics on tour, the economics of the game, and the shadows cast by gambling and doping, The Racket is a witty and revealing underdog's memoir and a unique look inside a fascinating hidden world.

The Racket

On Tour with Tennis’s Golden Generation – and the other 99%

Bernard Dunne

Bernard Dunne boxed for the first time at the age of 6. Twenty-three years later, in an electrifying performance at the O2 arena in Dublin, he stopped the brilliant Ricardo Cordoba to take the WBA World Super Bantamweight belt. 
 
The path from the gym in west Dublin to the world title was often a rocky one. Here, for the first time, Bernard Dunne tells his own amazing story. It begins in Neilstown, where boxing ran in the family. In his amateur career, Bernard never lost to an Irish fighter; but he narrowly missed out on the 2000 Olympics, and rather than spend another four years as an amateur in search of Olympic glory he decided to go pro. 
 
Going pro meant going to California, and, under the tutelage of Sugar Ray Leonard and Freddie Roach, California became a land of dreams for Bernard. Twelve of his fourteen professional fights in America were televised nationally, and he was working towards a title fight. But he missed home, missed his family. He wanted it all: he wanted to win a world title, and he wanted to do it in Ireland. 
 
The way he went about doing that has made Bernard Dunne an Irish national treasure. After winning a European belt, he was defeated by Kiko Martinez; but he bounced back with courage and brilliance to win the WBA super bantamweight belt from Cordoba in front of a delirious crowd at the O2 arena. 
 
Rather than rest on his laurels, as many champions in his position would do, Bernard accepted the toughest challenge of all: from a slab of granite named Poonsawat. He lost the belt, but his courage and dignity in defeat were heroic. Now, Bernard tells the full story of his life and boxing career - a story full of surprises. It will thrill all his old fans and win him new ones.

My Story

Kellie Harrington

Roddy Doyle

THE PHENOMENAL MEMOIR OF A NATIONAL TREASURE 
 
After Kellie Harrington won gold at the Tokyo Olympics, the Irish public recognized her as not merely a sporting hero, but a deeply inspirational human being. Now, Kellie tells the story of her unlikely journey to the top, and of the many obstacles and setbacks she overcame along the way. 
 
Growing up in Dublin's north inner city, Kellie was in danger of going down the wrong path in life before she discovered boxing. The local boxing club was all-male and initially wouldn't let her join, but she persisted. 
 
She was not an overnight success. For years she struggled in international competition. At times she felt unsupported by the national boxing set-up. More than once she considered giving up the sport. But some spark of ambition and love for boxing kept her going, and gradually she made herself world class. 
 
Writing with Roddy Doyle, the award-winning author of The Commitments, Kellie tells the story of her unlikely rise to greatness and her continuing dedication to living a normal life - which has involved remaining an amateur boxer and keeping the job she loves, at a Dublin psychiatric hospital. She shares exceptionally vivid and revealing details about being a woman in a historically male sport, and about how she manages her body and her mind. It is a vastly inspiring look inside the life and psychology of a woman who is both brilliantly ordinary and utterly exceptional.

Kellie

Paul O'Connell

There has never been a rugby player quite like Paul O'Connell. His name is synonymous with passion, heart and determination. But he is also the thinking man's rugby player, a legendary student of the game. 
 
As the heartbeat of Munster, British and Irish Lions captain in 2009, and captain of the first Ireland team to retain the Six Nations championship, O'Connell became the most beloved and respected of the golden generation of Irish rugby players - and was widely regarded as one of the very best players in the world. There was nothing inevitable - or even likely - about any of this, and in an autobiography as intense and thoughtful as its author, O'Connell explores the forces and struggles that turned him into the player and leader that he became. The Battle is a book for everyone who wants to understand the roots of achievement and the inner world of an elite sportsman. It will take its place alongside the very finest sports books of recent years.

The Battle

Paul Rouse

In 1882, a letter was published in the Irish Times, lamenting the decline of hurling. The game was now played only in a few isolated rural pockets, and according to no fixed set of rules. It would have been absurd to imagine that, within five years, an all-Ireland hurling championship would be underway, under the auspices of a powerful national organization. 
 
The Hurlers is a superbly readable account of that dramatic turn of events, of the colourful men who made it happen, and of the political intrigues and violent rows that marked the early years of the GAA. From the very start, republican and ecclesiastical interests jockeyed for control, along with a small core of enthusiasts who were really in it for the sport. Paul Rouse shows how sport, culture and politics swirled together in a heady, often chaotic mix.

The Hurlers

The First All-Ireland Championship and the Making of Modern Hurling

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