{"title":"Eamonn Sweeney","description":"\u003cp\u003eDiscover the insightful and often provocative writing of Eamonn Sweeney. From incisive sports commentary to cultural analysis, delve into thought-provoking perspectives on Irish life and beyond. Browse his works now.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"munster-hurling-legends-book-eamonn-sweeney-9780862788469","title":"Munster Hurling Legends","description":"Hurling is a game like no other. It is the fastest field game in the world and one of the oldest: a game that demands superb skill, lightning speed and split second reactions.  In Munster, hurling is a religion! For the players and fans there is nothing to compare to the clash of the ash and the sweet moment of victory.  Eamonn Sweeney introduces the stars of Munster hurling, the games that have brought the crowds to tears and the colourful stories and legends that have become part of hurling lore.    From around the province, Munster has bred some of the finest hurlers ever seen: Christy Ring, Mick Mackey, Tom Cheasty, John Doyle and Sean McMahon, to name but a few. Munster Hurling Legends is a celebration of the sport, the players, the wins and the losses, and of course, of Munster itself -- the home of hurling!","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49591198908689,"sku":"GOR002857775","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49631085920529,"sku":"GOR002330794","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0862788463.jpg?v=1750915791"},{"product_id":"o-brien-pocket-history-of-gaelic-sport-book-eamonn-sweeney-9780862788544","title":"O'Brien Pocket History of Gaelic Sport","description":"A clear, concise and fascinating introduction to Gaelic sport, covering Gaelic football, hurling, camogie and handball. The two greatest finals, the All Ireland Hurling and Football finals, are the largest amateur events in the world, drawing huge crowds and bringing many parts of the country to a standstill. This book deals with the origins of these games and their revival, the history of the championships and the GAA, the main rules and scoring systems, famous teams and players, great GAA grounds, All-Star awards and tours, the women's games, famous commentators, the gear and the trophies, compromise games with Aussie rules. A compendium of information on the fastest field sports in the world.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49594193379601,"sku":"GOR001515694","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0862788544.jpg?v=1751448919"},{"product_id":"munster-hurling-legends-book-eamonn-sweeney-9780862787738","title":"Munster Hurling Legends","description":"This work looks at the stars of Munster Hurling, the games that have brought the crowds to tears and the colourful stories and legends that have become part of hurling lore. From around the province, Munster has bred some of the finest hurlers ever seen: Christy Ring, Mick Mackey, John Doyle and Sean McMahon, to name but a few. \"Munster Hurling Legends\" is a celebration of the sport, the players, the wins and the losses, and of Munster itself - the home of hurling!","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49619748520209,"sku":"GOR007895669","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49959038484753,"sku":"GOR010634092","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50490839269649,"sku":"GOR002448089","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0862787734.jpg?v=1750819193"},{"product_id":"road-to-croker-book-eamonn-sweeney-9780340832677","title":"The Road to Croker","description":"In a hilarious and riveting account of the 2003 GAA season, award-winning writer Eamonn Sweeney recalls the highs and lows of a remarkable summer, and on the way describes why understanding GAA is central to understanding the Irish psyche.    Includes interviews and anecdotes from players, managers, supporters and a host of weird and wonderful characters he meets along the way.    The Road to Croker is set to become the GAA book for 2004.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49623444979985,"sku":"GOR003465155","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49657772048657,"sku":"GOR001275675","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49908774174993,"sku":"CIN0340832673G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50556354822417,"sku":"GOR000855883","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52630521151761,"sku":"CIN0340832673VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0340832673.jpg?v=1770289967"},{"product_id":"photograph-book-eamonn-sweeney-9780330480437","title":"The Photograph","description":"The Photograph sets out to retrace the stories of four men; Henry Caslin, former dance-hall owner and later Taoiseach of the Irish Republic; Jimmy Mimnagh, ruthless businessman, failed politician, hopeless drunkard; Seamus McKeon, a successful journalist and TV personality; and finally Father Gerry Lee, a priest with a predeliction for very young children and strong links to the IRA.With compassion and clarity Sweeney draws his masterful portraits, tracing the four men from their humble beginnings through four decades of public and private life. An extraordinarily rich narrative emerges, in which the personal stories of the central characters and the larger issues of Irish National politics and identity are woven together to show the heights and depths, the ambiguities and the certainties, the comedy and the tragedy of half a century of Irish life.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49644207866129,"sku":"GOR004191116","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50027727061265,"sku":"GOR003710007","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/033048043X.jpg?v=1751390484"},{"product_id":"photograph-book-eamonn-sweeney-9780330480840","title":"The Photograph","description":"The Photograph sets out to retrace the stories of four men: Henry Caslin, former dance-hall owner and later Taoiseach of the Irish Republic; Jimmy Mimnagh, ruthless businessman, failed politician, hopeless drunkard; Seamus McKeon, a successful journalist and TV personality; and finally Father Gerry Lee, a priest with a predilection for very young children and strong links to the IRA. With compassion and clarity Sweeney draws his masterful portraits, tracing the four men from their humble beginnings through four decades of public and private life. An extraordinarily rich narrative emerges, in which the personal stories of the central characters and the larger issues of Irish national politics and identity are woven together to show the heights and depths, the ambiguities and the certainties, the comedy and the tragedy of half a century of Irish life.   `It is Sweeney’s grand achievement to comprehend both history’s march and its human cost’ Guardian   `A blistering take on the Troubles’ The Times   `The finest book of fiction yet to examine the dirty reality that lay behind caring Catholic Ireland in the second half of the twentieth century . . . One of the most promising Irish writers of his generation’  Sunday Tribune (Dublin).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49644462866705,"sku":"GOR005927906","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0330480847.jpg?v=1751006988"},{"product_id":"down-down-deeper-and-down-book-eamonn-sweeney-9780717146338","title":"Down Down Deeper and Down","description":"The years 1973 to 1985 in Ireland were turbulent, dramatic and unpredictable. It was a different and wild time.      A time when strikes meant you couldn’t post a letter for five months, rubbish piled up in the streets and there was no TV to watch.     When there were bombs in the streets of the capital, hostage dramas kept everyone glued to their sets and the government kidnapped a hunger-striker’s corpse.     When you needed a prescription to buy a condom and when trying to alter this situation could see you threatened with death and your family with abduction.     When crowds marched for pirate radio, a pro-life referendum and Viking relics, and against the PAYE system and nuclear power.     When a president resigned, a Taoiseach voted against his own government and ministers bugged journalists and their own party colleague.      When Garret and Charlie went head to head.     When Irish women looked for equal pay and got it, when people risked their jobs and their liberty to help the oppressed in South Africa and the Philippines, when Irish gays took their first steps out of the closet.     When the pope came to Dublin and so did heroin and Heffo’s Army.     Sometimes it wasn’t too different from today. An unprecedented boom led to an economic meltdown, unemployment soared into double figures and the government bailed out the bankers while everyone else suffered.     Down, Down, Deeper and Down is the story of a time when statues moved and the Rats rocked. It is the story of a time not so long ago which is sometimes portrayed as being part of ancient history.      It is the story of the years that made us what we are today.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50199097508113,"sku":"GOR004263198","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50514928009489,"sku":"GOR006579272","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51436688146705,"sku":"GOR012549535","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0717146332.jpg?v=1750881071"},{"product_id":"waiting-for-the-healer-book-eamonn-sweeney-9780312182069","title":"Waiting for the Healer","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50347346264337,"sku":"CIN0312182066A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50348532334865,"sku":"CIN0312182066G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0312182066.jpg?v=1750909830"},{"product_id":"last-ditch-book-eamonn-sweeney-9781399734639","title":"The Last Ditch","description":"The ball is in the air as a sports writer confronts his deepest fears on a GAA championship trail. The question is where it will land.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51631299756305,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51631300149521,"sku":"NGR9781399734639","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52703179800849,"sku":"GOR014586230","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53043254722833,"sku":"GOR014712186","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53139317260561,"sku":"GOR014769699","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1399734636.jpg?v=1768560696"},{"product_id":"last-ditch-book-eamonn-sweeney-9781399734714","title":"The Last Ditch","description":"'A BOOK THAT ENTERS THE GAA CANON' THE 42  'A MAGICAL-MYSTERY TOUR OF A GAA SEASON' IRISH INDEPENDENT  'A cracking read ... a championship season as redemption song.' MICHAEL CLIFFORD  \"All the tension of a tight knockout encounter ... one of the books of the year.\" MIKE McCORMACK  Twenty‑one years on from his bestselling The Road to Croker, sportswriter Eamonn Sweeney set out to follow the All‑Ireland championships around the country once again. But there was one problem. To make the journey, he would have to confront a secret fear that had quietly shaped his life.  On the pitch, The Last Ditch captures the drama of a hurling season for the ages and a football championship that tested even the most loyal supporters - a landscape of unlikely triumphs, renaissances, shocks, cliffhangers and heartbreak.  Off the field, it becomes something deeper: one man's reckoning with middle age, masculinity and a crippling travel phobia that for two decades had dictated the span of his quiet, rural existence. As he moves through towns, terraces and conversations, Sweeney discovers not just the unifying spirit of the GAA, but the possibility of reclaiming a life he thought he'd lost.  Both an unforgettable sporting odyssey and a profoundly human memoir, The Last Ditch is a testament to how in Ireland, when all else fails, the GAA brings us home again.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53052124692753,"sku":"NGR9781399734714","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781399734714.jpg?v=1777455367"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-eamonn-sweeney.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}