Limerick contributors feature in newly published book of GAA stories

FIVE contributions from Limerick are part of a new GAA book - Grassroots: The Second Half.

“The GAA and I were astounded by the response to the first edition,” said book editor PJ Cunningham, who collaborated with Croke Park on both publications.

“This collection is slightly different to the first in that as well as having the usual stories from the deep roots of rural society, there are also numerous stories where people from other sports and walks of life talk of their GAA experiences,” he said.

Former Irish rugby international Ollie Campbell, ex-snooker world champion Ken Doherty, and Vienna-based opera singer Tom Birch, all explain how they became big fans of Gaelic games.

“Virtually no subject escapes in the 400 pages, with tales of a parish priest’s curse, referees officiating with watches which didn’t work to players taking ‘leaks’ on the field of play,” said Cunningham.  

“All human life is in there whether it is going to and from matches or in one case, the story where a Kilkenny fan got locked into a well-known Dublin pub while his team won the All Ireland hurling final a mile away in Croke Park.

“This book provides snapshots into the history of the GAA, recounted by the people at the heart of the action, whether those stories are happy or sad, sensational or ordinary.”

Award-winning Limerick-born writer and poet Mae Leonard presents a story peppered with intrigue on the road to Ardee while her husband Joe, a former All-Ireland minor hurling winner with his native county, writes an account of his own career cleverly devised within a conversation with his grandson Theo.

Seamus Walsh lifts the lid on what was actually said in that famous GAA photograph where Mackey, the official in the white coat, and Ring, the player, have an exchange during a Munster senior hurling championship game.

Jim McNamara’s humour shines through in a captivating account of reaching the GAA ‘age of reason’.

Meanwhile, Glensharrold, Carrigkerry-native Tom Aherne lets readers in on the secrets of how you could be beaten by a ‘fellustrum cutter’ of a shot in their very own glen of Tir na nÓg.

There are also contributions from the late John B Keane, who gives his views on junior referees and a separate story on different circumstances surrounding a Seamus Darby goal.