The upcoming Irish biography on Waterford hurling legend Ned Power is a biography about an extraordinary sporting personage and is a mixture of personal memoir, historical analysis and, of course, biography.

The Irish biography tends to be about a lot of misery, but this one is, broadly speaking, free of such lows.  It’s perhaps a reflection of the constantly positive outlook of the man himself.  He was one who always trusted in things turning out for the best in the end and having a strong faith in both God and his fellow human beings – always giving people the benefit of the doubt and giving them not just a second and a third chance, but a fourth and fifth one too.

We do have this vision of Ireland in the 1940s as being a somewhat miserable place where people didn’t have anything.  But there is more to life than tangible assets and the times have been described to me as being as plentiful as any.  If things were low on the credit side, there was even less to worry about on the debit side.  There was no mobile phone bill, no fixed line bill, no fuel bill, no car maintenance or NCT and no credit available to cause you any further angst.  If you were in the countryside, there was no electricity bill and you didn’t need a rod licence to fish.  Because you had to rely solely on your body for transport, you were fitter and healthier and you also communicated with your neighbours.  Your food was better.

“My Father: A Hurling Revolutionary, the life and times of Ned Power” is out on paperback at the end of November 2009.  Click here for further information, pre-order and excerpt.