Eamonn Sweeney is a writer after my own heart, comments An Fear Rua…

He knows his GAA through and through. He loves it and is passionate and committed about it, though he never loses sight either of where there’s room for improvement. Sweeney is also judiciously conscious of the wider picture in which GAA games are played out – for example, the effect of multiple changes in the demographics and economics of this country and the evolution of politics. He is clear about the need for the GAA to adapt and be flexible against this background, if it is to continue to be successful.

The basic idea of ‘The Road to Croker’ is simple, but its success as a book lies in its assured execution: to chronicle the championship year of 2003 from beginning to end, not through following the fortunes of a single county (as has been done in the past), but mixing and matching a variety of counties and games, in both football and hurling. Sweeney goes deeply into each game. Apart from thrilling descriptions of the game and its atmosphere, we get the background on key players involved, the traditional tensions (if any) between the two counties and – most memorably – the views and insights of the clubs and club people that made the great players and counties. In this way, the reader gets an informative and entertaining slice of GAA life as she is lived in the early years of the 21st century.

The book begins, somewhat improbably, on 25th May 2003 with the first round of the Munster football championship between Tipperary and Waterford, at Walsh Park, in Waterford. This was a gutsy choice of opening chapter, rather than a game involving more high-flown exponents of ‘the big ball game’. However, in AFR’s estimation, this chapter alone ranks among one of the best pieces of GAA writing he has come across in a long time. After that excellent start, the rest of the book continues at a similar high level and the memorable games tumble out – that draw between Meath and Westmeath … Laois putting the Dubs to the sword … Cork against Waterford at Semple stadium … all the way through to Tyrone’s September triumph … and everything else in between.

Along the championship trail, Sweeney introduces us to some memorable characters. Like the Dub taxi driver who took him to Heuston station after ‘the Metropolitans’ had gone down to Laois in the Leinster semi-final: ‘Oh yeah, back to whatever kip you came from where they’ll all be fucking delighted that Dublin lost too. Back home, home to your mother. ‘Cause that’s what yiz all do down the country, live with your mothers till yiz are 50 years old. Farming, lying back and collecting the money from the taxpayer and the EU. And then yiz come up here and are delighted that Dublin get beaten …’

Even more memorable – and well set to take her place in the pantheon of real GAA ‘characters’ – is ‘The Chatty Wee Blonde from Tempo’. She makes her appearance in an enthralling chapter on Fermanagh’s one point defeat of Sligo in the fourth Qualifying Round. Tempo is one of those quiet Fermanagh villages where nothing much ever happens. Sweeney glances into an empty pub and is about to push on to the bright lights and fleshpots of Brookeborough ’when a small, very pretty blonde woman of around 22 stuck her head from the back and wondered if I was alright’. There ensues what the author describes as ‘one of the best GAA conversations I had all year’. The perky blonde’s description of former Fermanagh manager, John Maughan, is priceless and worthy of Molly Bloom herself: ‘And those leggings that he wears and the short shorts, he must think he looks lovely…’ AFR suspects that, after this introduction to a wider audience, there’ll be many a young man dropping into Tempo for a pint in the hope of bumping into ’The Chatty Wee Blonde’…

A feature of the book that takes a bit of getting used to is the way Sweeney often digresses to a more general, and controversial, GAA topic that is not directly related to the particular game in hand. A mention of a name, a date or some event may be enough to trigger such a discussion and the tone is sometimes a bit heavier than the rest of the pages. These digressions may sometimes last for several pages until the author pulls us back to the narrative in hand. At times, these essays – for that is what they are – are of such duration and complexity that AFR felt they – and the reader – might benefit if they were developed into stand alone chapters, perhaps interwoven between the ‘match’ chapters.

Eamonn Sweeney's 'Road to Croker' is a 'must read' for every GAA fan...
’The Road to Croker’is published by Hodder Headline Ireland and – with more than 360 pages – represents great value at €11.99. The cover is nicely designed and the typeface and design are of a high standard. AFR strongly recommends it to all fans – of whatever game and whatever county.

Eamonn Sweeney was born in Sligo in 1968 and lives in West Cork. He writes for the ‘Sunday Tribune’ and may be seen occasionally on RTÉ’s ‘Breaking Ball’. He has written two other sports books: ’There’s Only One Red Army’ and ’Munster Hurling Legends’ as well as two novels, ’Waiting for the Healer’ and The Photograph. A play called ’Bruens Twist’ completes his oeuvre to date.

The Hodder Headline web site: Mad About Books