Ireland’s Best Sportsbooks 2023 to settle scores and reveal the true GAA experience

If you go to a used bookstore, you are sure to find it. There are tons of them.

Gathering dust, mostly. Unwanted, unloved. But there was also a time when the sportsbooks in question were the talk of the town and the country.

However, sportsbooks seem to have a short shelf life. Very few people stand the test of time. That’s the test we used when evaluating the 2023 crop.

Why do people still search for ‘Only A Game’ by Eamon Dunphy? And ‘A Strange Kind of Glory’, ‘A Rough Ride’ by Paul Kimmage and ‘Back from the Brink’ by Paul McGrath. , David Remnick’s “King of the World,” and Andre Agassi’s “Open?”

They don’t care if it was released in 1976, 1991, 1990, 2006, 1998, or 2009. What lies between their jackets is timeless.

These books will last a long time. They have been praised for many things, but the word that keeps repeating is “integrity.”

There was a time when honest sports books were all too rare. Most of the praise is about the book’s subject matter, and for balance it might be pointed out that he – which was almost always him – sulked for hours after losing once. .

Dunphy, Kimmarge and Liam Hayes were game-changers for the Irish front. Mr Hayes deserves special credit for changing the landscape when it comes to GAA books, which have been unavailable for decades with a few exceptions.

They followed a familiar pattern. An opening chapter about the player’s childhood and school days and pride in his local club, followed by a chapter about how great the player was in his prime, before concluding with the author how the GAA was Choose the best team for yourself from the teams you played, followed by a “controversial” chapter about what changes need to be made.

So many trees died for so little cost. Hayes certainly led an unusual double life. Although his day job was chief sports writer for the now-defunct Sunday Press, Hayes also played in midfield during Meath’s powerhouse days.

In his autobiography, Hayes breaks the mold. This was the first memoir by a player to reveal exactly what life was like behind closed doors in the locker room.

Hayes also writes very openly about the tragedy of losing his brother to suicide. This began a trend for Irish athletes, especially those in his GAA, to take up rawer, more personal subjects in their books.

Dessie Farrell talks about her depression and broken marriage, Donal Og Cusack talks about his life as a gay hurler, Cathal McCarron talks about his gambling addiction driven by gay porn, and John Leonard talks about his life as a gay hurler. A chaotic lifestyle of sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll as a soccer player.

Autobiographies dominate the market here when it comes to sports books, but 2023 has been relatively quiet in that regard. The three most famous were those released by Liam Brady, Pat Spillane and Carl Frampton.

Brady’s football career is reminiscent of the Irish-born player’s unparalleled career.

It’s a decent read. You fly over it, but then you suffer that it came so close after the RTÉ documentary The Irishman Abroad.

That means many stories remain fresh in our minds when reading this book. Brady also made it clear in the book that he distanced himself from personal matters, and in reality, he needed a bit of that.

Spillane’s In the Blood was not the first book Kerryman published. It wasn’t the second or third.

But the man himself and ghostwriter Michael Moynihan opened the door to give us insight into Spillane’s later years. Spillane’s human side shines through, reflecting on his work in the Irish countryside and the sacrifices it has taken.

Perhaps the most frustrating sports book of the year was Carl Frampton’s autobiography. It is interesting to consider his background in the Loyalist stronghold of Tiger’s Bay, Belfast, and how he had no time for sectarian divisions in the North.

But I can’t help but feel that it’s primarily an exercise in settling scores. Frampton’s rise to the top was supervised by Barry McGuigan and trained by McGuigan’s son Shane.

However, they had a most bitter breakup, ending in a legal battle in Belfast. A settlement was eventually reached out of court, but Frampton has reflected on the breakdown of their relationship in detail.

This is in contrast to Daniel Kinahan’s lack of details about his relationship with his boxing company, MTK Global. His choice of one of MTK’s most senior managers, Paul D. Gibson, as his ghostwriter raises further questions. This is a book where honesty about its subject’s career seems selective.

Paul Rouse’s ‘Sport in Modern Irish Life’ and Eimear Ryan’s ‘The Grass Ceiling’ are linked in several ways.

Both are books of essays, and both writers walked the walk. Rouse is not only his UCD historian, he was once one of Offaly’s best club footballers, leading the county’s senior team.

As well as being an acclaimed novelist, Ryan also excelled in camogie, winning an All-Ireland with Tipperary in 2004.

Both books are well worth checking out, but it’s Ryan’s book that keeps us coming back 10, 20, and 30 years from now.

That’s because it’s the first Irish sports book to reveal how different the experience of women in sport is for those involved.

When was the seed planted? A long time ago, when Ryan was just seven years old, he was given a framed copy of Seamus Redmond’s Hurler’s Prayer.

She liked it, but something bothered her. That last line — “You threw it like a man.”

What about girls? What about women? Why was hurling played by women called camogie?

“What did I know about throwing like a man? I wanted to branch out and get away from the clichés and established narratives that are out there,” Ryan said.

“Strangely, for things that mean so much to us, I feel like there is a very narrow range of emotions in the GAA. There are things that can be expressed and things that cannot be expressed. I would definitely like to participate.

“Even men can pick up this book and realize that they have a lot in common with me, that we have a common childhood in the GAA, a common experience at the club, and that those things happen regardless of gender. Those experiences are universal.

“You start thinking about your body in terms of what it can do rather than how it looks. You become an engine rather than an ornament. Camogie is the only context in which I have been praised for my aggression.”

Ryan’s book, like most books, forces us to confront uncomfortable assumptions. It’s a must read.

My final recommendation is “Blood Show Business” by Eamon Kerr. Kerr had a ringside view of the golden age of Irish boxing that we now look back on, and this book benefits from his empathy for those who risked their lives in the toughest matches.

We hope this is just a taster of Carr’s autobiography, as the man once known as Guru Weirdbrain has lived many lives…

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