Book reviews for 2019 – great reads for Christmas

‘Charlie: The Story of Charlie Gallagher, the GAA’s Lost Icon’

Charlie Gallagher by Paul Fitzpatrick

A new book recounting the life of former Cavan and Ulster star Charlie Gallagher has soared to number three in the national sports book best-seller charts.

‘Charlie: The Story of Charlie Gallagher, the GAA’s Lost Icon’ tells the story of the Breffni attacker who won four Ulster SFC medals and four Railway Cups and was renowned for his charisma and extraordinary scoring feats.

Gallagher, who has been described as ‘the George Best of Gaelic football’, was a well-known figure nationwide. He regularly featured in the national top scorers list and topped the charts on a couple of occasions.

He was a very familiar figure in Derry, where he lined out for the Ballerin club alongside the great Sean O’Connell in 1968, and regulary took training sessions with local clubs, including Foreglen.

“Boys like Charlie don’t come around too often. I often think he would have been a TV star nowadays. He had that charisma, he attracted people,” Seamus Hoare comments.

“When he came into the dance hall in Jackson’s in Ballybofey, there was a buzz. ‘There’s Charlie Gallagher!’ sort of thing.”

“Charlie was an incredible footballer but the most pleasant of personalities as well and that is something that shines out without a doubt,” says Colm McAlarney.

The book charts Charlie’s childhood, football career and his battle with alcoholism in later years, leading up to his untimely death at the age of 51 in 1989.

‘Charlie’ is published by Ballpoint Press and is available online and from all good bookshops. Signed copies can be ordered from the author, who can be contacted at paulfitzpatrick09@gmail.com and 086 6648735.

The Complete All-Ireland Senior Football Championship 1887 -2019

By John O’Neill

Litter Press (buy from Amazon for £15 plus postage)

For as long as the GAA has agreed playing rules for Gaelic Football, those same rules have been constantly under review. And despite what some people might tell you – taken over the long history of the Championship, today’s teams are scoring more on average than at any time in the past.

So says John O’Neill who has recently produced a book for those GAA fans who love their stats.

The Complete All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, 1887-2019 just published by Litter Press . The book provides a full record of all the games from 1887 through to 2019 as well as an introduction to the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and the evolution of its formats and playing rules with some analysis and other overviews.

The Complete All-Ireland SFC from 1887 to 2019 holds records from all the senior championship in the history of the GAA.

The books records scores in county-by-county format, but also year to year.

The official Gaelic Games Annual

Niamh McCoy and Ailís Corey

Gill books (€9.99, £8.99)

This year young supporters of Gaelic Football, hurling, camogie and handball can receive an annual they’ll adore, namely the Gaelic Games Annual 2020.

It is jam packed with trivia, quizzes, games, puzzles, player profiles, exclusive interviews, cool competitions and more. Young supporters will be totlly absorbed from the very first page.

The annual is perfect for children aged seven and upwards. It features stuning action shots, and thrilling behind-the-scenes moments as well as coverage of key matches and vital facts and figures. Sports-mad supporters will love finding out about Ireland’s top teams, and learning abut the history of the GAA, the LGFA and the Camogie Association. There are also tips to improve their game.

The authors are Niamh McCoy and Ailís Corey who run the GAA museum at Croke Park. The Museum turned 20 in 2018, and it is open to everyone, every day.

Great GAA Rivalries

By John Scally

Black and White Publishing

A new book Great GAA Rivalries recounts some of the most high-profile clashes the GAA has ever seen.

The book is written by John Scally. For the book, Scally draws on over a hundred interviews with a who’s who of Gaelic Games.

One of the stories of interest to Ulster readers is the Tyrone-Armagh rivalry.

He writes: “Probably the only thing that has united Armagh and Tyrone fans in the last generation has been a shared antipathy for Pat Spillane. In Armagh they take offence from his infamous comments at half-time on The Sunday Game in the 2002 All-Ireland final, when he dismissed their chances of beating Kerry especially his comment that although his mother had arthritis she was still faster than the Armagh full-back line. A year later he infuriated Tyrone fans when he accused them of playing ‘puke football’ when they beat Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final.”

Great GAA Rivalries is published by Black and White Publishing and is available in all good bookshops now.

Camouflage – Eoin Larkin

Reach PLC

EOIN LARKIN is a hurling hero. Eight times an All-Ireland winner with Kilkenny and each of them as a starting player – a record matched by Christy Ring, John Doyle and JJ Delaney and bettered only by Henry Shefflin in hurling history – he stands proudly alongside the legends of the game. A soldier who undertook NATO and UN tours of duty in war-torn Kosovo and Syria, he fought many a battle in the famous black and amber but his biggest fight was shrouded in secrecy – until now. Larkin suffered from depression. Day by day it crept up on him and invaded his every waking thought, to the point where suicide increasingly commanded his thoughts. Caught in an unforgiving man’s world, he refused to acknowledge his problems, much less deal with them, until the day came that he could ignore them no longer. What happened next provided a turning point for Larkin to confront his demons and emerge as a changed man. Told with honesty and raw emotion, Eoin Larkin: Camouflage – My Story is a moving and revealing book that will surprise and inspire GAA fans who have followed Larkin’s stellar career and will further open up the very topical debate around mental health in sport.

About that Goal: The Official Autobiography Of Seamus Darby

By Seamus Darby

Ballpoint press, Price – €14.99 (£14.99)

For the first time, Seamus Darby, the man who scored the most famous goal in the history of the GAA, puts the record straight on the commonly held belief that drink and neglect of his business following that celebrated shot led to his descent into penury.

As the then 31-year-old left the Croke Park pitch in 1982 after preventing Kerry from completing the five-in-a-row of All Irelands, an Offaly man who embraced him in victory told him: “Darby, you’ll never see a poor day.”

How wrong that fan was.

By the time he had left his thirties, Darby had been forced to emigrate to London with only a £50 note given to him by a friend for company.

‘About That Goal’ traces the heart-rending vicissitudes of a man thrust into national headlines who then had to deal with the fallout of losing his business and his marriage before returning to Ireland to buy his own pub and learning how to treat triumph and tragedy with equanimity.

Ghostwriter PJ Cunningham is a former sports editor with the Irish Independent and Sunday Tribune and is a former Offaly panellist under Eugene McGee.