New book celebrates Ballingarry's links to Scottish soccer giants Hiberninan FC

A SON of Ballingarry is being celebrated with the release of a new book, linking the Limerick town to the establishment of one of Scotland's biggest football clubs.

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Edinburgh native Michael Hennessy has released a book titled ‘Edinburgh’s First Hibernian’, a biography which delves into Scottish club Hibernian and the club's links to the Treaty County.

‘Edinburgh’s First Hibernian: The Mission of Edward Joseph Hannan’ is the long-overdue first biography of Father Edward Hannan, the Limerick priest who co-founded Hibernian Football Club in Scotland and who rose from post-Famine Ireland to become one of the most influential figures in 19th-century Edinburgh.

Against the historical backdrop of 19th century Europe, the book traces the course of Hannan’s life in Ireland, who was born on a farm in Ballygrennan just outside Ballingarry.

Author Michael Hennessy describes how the writing of the book came about, inspired by a trip to Limerick with friends six years ago.

"The project started when myself and four ageing school friends, all Hibs' supporters, came to Ballingarry in 2019 and we found out that not much was known about Edward Hannan in the village. 

We thought that was a bit odd, so I decided to dig a bit more because it can't be right that the founder of Hibs isn't known about in his own town," he said. 

Michael describes the writing process, where it came apparent over time that the word count was beginning to grow and grow, ultimately leading him to meet with a publisher.

"At the time my ambition was to write an essay and give some brief details about the man but suddenly 2,000 words became 50,000 words and I'm thinking 'I could get a PHD out of this' and then 50,000 words became 100,000 words.

A mate of mine said to me 'this is a book Mike' and to cut a long story short, Sean Bradley from Thirsty Books took me on and we spent a year creating the product that we hope people will buy come this weekend. That's how it happened, it has been a real labour of love," he said. 

Michael admits that the process of writing the book reminded him of his time as a college student, where he studied at Stirling University.

"I've never written a book before and I haven't written anything long since university, which was 50 years ago where I studied history, I was a history graduate.

So this was like going back 50 years to the research and digging around in the newspapers and in the archives and all that kind of stuff and I kind of got carried away," Michael said

"I never had a word count or a target in my head or anything like that, I just found interesting things about Hannan's life and the time in which he lived in because there's a lot of context in the book that explains what the environment was in which this man lived and worked.

A lot of my mates have asked me 'is this another Hibs' book?', and I had to keep reminding them that it was not. Hibs' is the subject of maybe two or three chapters but if anything it's a social economic, religious, sporting, history book because it covers all sorts of aspects," he added. 

Not only did Michael uncover a lot about Edward Hannan during the writing process, but his own family as well.

"One of the many reasons why I enjoyed the process was because I found out a lot about my own family, my great-great grandparents were actually Hannan's parishioners in Edinburgh.

They're buried a very short distance from where Hannan is in the Grange Cemetery. You couldn't make it up, none of my family knew anything about where they were buried and on the journey, I found them." 

"It then got me thinking who Hannan's other parishioners were and James Connolly's name popped up alongside my great-great grandparents!

Kneeling beside each other in the church every Sunday, you sort of pinch yourself but that's the thing I tried to re-create. What were the issues of the day that Hannan had to deal with? Who were the people around? I went down so many different rabbit holes," Michael said. 

Above all, Michael is excited to return to Ireland to launch the book this Saturday.  

"Absolutely looking forward to coming back to Ireland. My father was from Laois, I've got an Irish passport, my brother lived in Dublin for 40 years and I visit him quite frequently.

We all enjoy a pint of the black stuff, everyone knows it's better in Ireland than anywhere else so there will be a certain amount of that consumed when I'm back," he said. 

‘Edinburgh’s First Hibernian: The Mission of Edward Joseph Hannan’ will be launched at Ballingarry AFC on Saturday, October 11 at 4pm. 

Minister for Culture, Communication and Sport, Patrick O'Donovan, TD, will be a guest of honour at the launch this weekend.