Diarmuid O’Flynn – the sports writer writer with the Irish Examiner – brought out an interesting book last year named “Club, Sweat and Tears” (I felt fierce stupid altogether but I kept thinking that it was called ‘Blood, Sweat and Tears’ for ages until I read the cover more carefully).

It’s the remarkable story of Newtownshandrum – the club of Ben & Jerry O’Connor – and its author is a Ballyhea man, from Newtown’s most bitter rivals.  Small clubs doing huge things always makes for great reading and it did remind me of the story of my own home town of Tallow.  They never reached the heights that Newtown did. Their big chance was in 1985 when they lost by a single point to Kilruane McDonaghs from Tipperary, who were to go on and win the All-Ireland final that year.

But Newtown seems to be an even smaller place, so their achievements were all the more remarkable.  O’Flynn has an easy style, a passion for hurling and keen eye for relevant detail.  If reading the life story of former Waterford goalkeeper Ned Power isn’t your thing, then you could do worse than pick up this book.

“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.

Before being let go, taking on journalism on a full-time basis and writing a hurling book/ memoir/ biography about my father Ned Power, I used to sell houses for a living.

One of the very first properties I sold was to an American of Italian extraction named Fred Caruso.  He lives in the American mid-west with his wife ellen.  I didn’t know it at the time, but it was an extraordinary, danger-filled story that brought him from being a Italian New-Yorker who couldn’t see the point in leaving New York (let alone the USA itself) to being an Irish citizen with his own little home in West Cork.

It was the dying tradition of conscription that forced his hand in the early 1960s.  His country called him at the barrel of a gun, as it were and he reluctantly boarded a plane as Private Caruso, bound for an American army base in Germany.   But the plane carrying him and many others crashed into the Atlantic.

Lucky to survive, he was taken ashore in Ireland where he was “re-born”.  He eventually ended up marrying a lady of Irish origins and was led by the hand of fate to his natural spiritual home.

His memoir – “Born Again Irish – O’Caruso” – is a well written account of his rollercoaster ride of an experience.  His taught journalist style comes through and its an entertaining read.

For more information or to order a copy of the book, click here.  Hurling book it ain’t, but it’s great stuff nonetheless.

“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.

Fifty years ago, it was the turn of the Waterford senior team to go to Croke Park in search of All-Ireland glory.

This year, it was the junior camogie team that gave it a lash against Offaly.  Here’s how it panned out…

Waterford’s dream of All Ireland glory was dashed by an experienced Offaly side in Sundays All Ireland Junior final in Croke Park.

Experience played a significant role as Waterford started very nervously in their first ever appearance at Croke Park even though a magnificent save was made by Waterford goal keeper Aisling OBrien from a penalty which was awarded to Offaly five minutes into the game. But Offalys third appearance was very apparent as they were 1-11 to Waterford’s 0-4 at half time.

The second half began with a much improved Waterford side, with all girls giving it their all and the nerves seemed to have settled. After four minutes of the second half Patricia Jackman hit the roof of the Offaly net from an accurate pass from Lismore’s Nicola Morrissey which left only six points between the sides which gave hope to the Deise side.

Offaly goalkeeper made two magnificent saves which denied Waterford’s Karen Kelly two certain goals. But on the 48th minute a well taken Siobhain Flannery goal played a significant part in Offaly’s win as it urged on the Offaly side in which two minutes later another Offlay goal hit the back of the Waterford net. But determined Waterford never gave up and kept on fighting to the bitter end with an Aine Lyng goal on the 56th minute, but prove too little too late. The final score Offaly 3-14  Waterford 2 – 8. All in Waterford are proud of this bunch of girls who gave their full commitment to training since last November and made history as they were the first ever Waterford camogie team to contest an All Ireland final in Croke Park. Waterford camogie  is up with the best of them in the country as the three County teams who entered the All Ireland Championship in their grades contested an All Ireland final in 2009. Panel; A. OBrien, V.Gafney, S OGrady (Cpt), K.M Hearne, G.Kenneally, M. ODonnell, S. Kiernan, M.Murphy, C. Raher, S. Curran, K. Kelly(0-2), N. Morrissey (0-2), P. Jackman (1-1_, A. Lyng (1-3), A. Breathnach.Subs used; J. Simpson for S. Curran, A. Kelly for A. Breathnach, M. Russell for V. GafneySubs; N.Ryan, L. Prendergast, A. Cummins, R. Whelan, R. Heylin, M. Heffernan, L. Whelan, P. Cunningham, D. Fahy.

“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.

As it was with the All-Ireland hurling final, so it was with the football final:  The perennial favourites have stuck to their experienced guns and come through.

Cork will be wondering at what might have been while Kerry were the ones who showed how its done – put the head down and stick to the task at hand.

The one positive (and not the only one) that Waterford hurling can draw from their experiences is that they have adapted that sort of attitude to matches – the one of rolling up the sleeves and keep working to the final whistle.  The loss of Justin McCarthy as their coach has left them a little rough around the edges – they were a much more polished team with him in charge – but if that issue of their play can be addressed, then they will be a force to be reckoned with next year.

Now that there’s virtually no more inter-county fun to be had for the rest of the year, it’s the season of talking about it all and observing how the county finals pan out.  After that, it’s the run-in to Christmas and hurling books.

“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.

In 2005, Dickie Roche – a former Waterford goalkeeper and Mount Sion club man – brought out a hurling book that makes essential reading for anyone with a strong interest in Waterford hurling and GAA.

A Story of Hurling in Waterford

entitled “A Story of Hurling in Waterford”, It’s a painstakingly compiled record of all the championship campaigns of the Waterford county hurling teams, as well as the county finals.

Not only does it give the relevant scores of each game, it also gives an account of the matches themselves.  Here’s an extract, for example, from the year 1963:

“After the heavy defeat in the 1962 Munster Final, Waterford were keen to get back for another crack at the title.  They played Limerick at Thurles in the Semi-final.  Waterford lined out without Tom Cheasty and lost Austin Flynn through injury during the game.  With a good all round performance they ended up with a six point win 2-15 to 3-16.  The scene was now set for a repeat of the 1962 final with Tipperary and the good news was that Tom Cheasty and Austin Flynn were fit to start this game.  The game itself was a tense struggle with hard knocks given and taken on both sides.  Tipperary had the better of the first half and held a two point lead going into the break, 0-5 to 0-3.  The second half started with Tipperary adding another point but at this stage Waterford brought on M. Dempsey at centre field and things began to go their way.  Phil Grimes was in  great form from placed balls and soon Waterford were in front, Grimes weighing in with eight of Waterford’s eleven point total.  Tipperary had a goal disallowed and had some close in frees saved by a very solid Waterford defence and held on for a three point win. There were no goals scored due to good goalkeeping from e. Power (i.e. Ned Power) and R. Mounsey (Tipperary).”

A simple idea – to catalogue all the matches that have mattered over the years of Waterford hurling but no-one had done it until this former Waterford All-Ireland goalkeeper did it himself.  One of the best hurling books you’ll ever read!

“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.

There are as many hurling books as there are hurling skills, with more emerging at the end of every year.

Ned Power himself identified over 120 different identifiable skills in the game of hurling.  This was part of a process that was started by Donie Nealon, Des Ferguson and Fr. Tommy Maher in 1965.  Ned joined the team of men with the “right stuff”.  The Americans had their space programme.  We in Ireland had our feet more firmly rooted on the ground, dealing with stuff that really mattered.

So all the hurling books in the world don’t make a difference if you don’t have the basics, broken down into components of information that can be then taught and passed on to others so that they too may be able to enjoy and perfect their skills; so that the quality of the game is increased throughout the country.

“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.

The Irish biography, sports biography and GAA biography are three separate categories of book that are popular, particularly in the all-important run-up to Christmas.

A book about the Waterford hurler Ned Power is one that covers all three, but what are the characteristics that typify the Irish biography?

The one word that comes to mind when talking about the Irish biography seems to be “misery”.  There is a long, miserable list of sad stories that start off with a miserable beginning steeped in extremes of poverty and barefoot hopefulness.  The story then moves on to tell how the hero overcame such shortcomings and went on to become something special, something that rose above the seemingly impossible circumstances.  It’s a story of the triumph of the human spirit.  And there’s a picture of the author on the sleeve, wearing an expensive mohair suit, sitting in his large American home with a pipe in his mouth for literary-legend effect.

But not all Irish biographies are stories that go from destitution to riches.  For someone born in the 1920s in Ireland, there is always going to be a certain amount of poverty thrown into the mix, but these were times when material possessions were the preserve of the few in any case so most people would not have seen it as poverty because they had nothing to compare it with.  There were no Jones’ to keep up with and it’s only in looking back that the poverty emerges in retrospective relief.

From Abject Rags to Riches

Frank McCourt has a lot to answer for but I suppose that his was a miserable upbringing nonetheless.

So, Irish biographies can certainly speak of a simpler past, if not a poverty-stricken one.

“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.

Ned Power’s contribution to Waterford GAA over the course of his life was mostly at grass roots level rather than at the inter-county level.

It’s fair to say that he was more of a revolutionary working from within rather than anyone who would toe the line, so to speak.  He had his own views on how things should be and he was steadfast on these.  There was a way of taking free, for example.  There was a technique to it that had to be followed, involving the correct stance, position and approach, which included rolling, not scooping, the ball.  You can be successful 99% of the time if you scoop it, but you could be successful 100% of the time if you roll it.

Roll it... Don't scoop it up like a shovel!

There was an ad for a certain Dublin-brewed stout on the telly a few years ago where a player is lining up to take a free.  The thought of being given a pint of stout keeps him going mentally as he prepares to take the free.  But when he lifts to take the shot, what does he do?  That’s right – he scoops instead of rolling.  Sure enough, if you look carefully at the frame where the hurley connects with the ball, you’ll see that it’s the upper part of the stick that hits the ball.  Why?  Because the guy didn’t roll the bloody ball, so in this case his scooping resulted in the ball not being exactly where he wanted it to be; where it should connect with the bas.  In reality, therefore, although the tone of the ad would lead you to believe that drinking porter is important to your fitness and that this particular alcoholic free-taker actually scored, his shot was almost certainly weak and off-target.

Waterford to win the All-Ireland in 2010.

“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.

Hard to catch the ball with a Kilkenny man looking over your shoulder

What a match. It was much less stressful this year to be watching the All-Ireland Final from a position that, as a Waterford fan, I’m far more accustomed to – that is, from the point of view of a neutral observer. And, do you know, I’ve noticed something that I haven’t noticed in years – that this Kilkenny team is a brilliant team! Seriously; they’re very good.

All jokes aside, though, Waterford could learn a lot from today’s display as to how to face a Kilkenny team in an All-Ireland Final: You fight for everything; you sharpen your skills until you have every member of the team with skill levels to match the Kilkenny men; you frustrate and harry them without any let-up; you block and hook them to the point of confusion and failure to be able to execute the most simple of tasks; you ensure that you’re first to every ball. The one thing they failed to do, in fact, was to make their dominance count on the scoreboard.

It was an extraordinary game on so many levels, not least when it comes to picking the Man of the Match. The main contenders for the title were all Tipperary men. However, as it’s the usual custom to pick a man from the winning side, then my Man of the Match would have to be PJ Ryan (and I don’t care what anyone says, he does look like Graham Norton when viewed from the side as he lines up for the puck-out), who was the most vital Kilkenny player over a prolonged period when Tipperary were dominating every aspect of the game. His remarkable goalkeeping literally kept them in it before their rally in the last 10 minutes ensured them a five-point victory that in no way reflected how close this contest was.

The penalty that turned Tipperary’s hard-fought lead on its head six minutes from time was an incorrect decision but in fairness to the referee, he was sharp and fair-handed overall. In fact, if anything, 50/50 decisions went in favour of Tipperary. The free awarded to Lar Corbett in the 28th minute is a good example of a referee punishing a Kilkenny side more for their overly-physical reputation than for their actual play on the day.

Corbett himself was one of the best men on the field. In the first half, he and Eoin Kelly were the stars who stood out most for Tipperary and led by example.

On the Kilkenny side, some players were having an ever-so-slightly off-colour day at the office. I sighed when I saw Henry Shefflin miss a golden goal opportunity and then miss the resultant 65. Why couldn’t he have played like that against Waterford in the semi-final, I wailed to myself. Even Tennyson was a shadow of the colossus he was against us in the previous match.

It was such a free-flowing and entertainingly full-blooded encounter, you could not keep your eye off it for one second. The Tipperary defence was magnificent and were shading it compared to the performance of their opposite numbers, catching every high ball and not giving the Kilkenny forwards any time to settle. When the half-time whistle sounded, you had the feeling that the Tipperary players must have been scratching their heads and wondering how on earth they managed to be losing, albeit by just two points.

Because they were playing Kilkenny, that’s why.

Sure enough, it was the Kilkenny players who looked the more composed coming out of the dressing room after the break, but that confidence was to be tested to almost breaking point during the course of the next 25 minutes or so. Time and time again, Tipperary’s keener hunger and sharper play put them in what was looking more and more like an unassailable winning position. Conor O’Mahony snatching the ball in mid-air from under the nose of Henry Shefflin in the 41st minute of the game epitomised the Tipperary attitude and dominance. Benny Dunne’s introduction gave the Tipperary team the injection of fresh pace that you now felt could finish out the game. But the potential hero became the villain of the piece when, in an apparent rush of blood to the head, he smacked Tommy Walsh full in the face on 54 minutes and referee Diarmuid Kirwan had no choice but to produce the red card.

Even at 14 men, Tipperary still dominated and they actually increased their lead after the sending off. Then just as it was beginning to look like Brian Cody had finally shot himself in the foot by not bolstering his midfield in a Kilkenny team that seemed to be crying plaintively for “Cha”, his substitutions, aided by a rub of the green at the right time (i.e. the afore-mentioned penalty decision) paid off handsomely as the penalty goal was swiftly followed by some vintage Kilkenny goal-scoring from substitute Martin Comerford that seemed to mock the various failed opportunities of Tipperary earlier in the half, and there was no way back for Tipperary from that point.

Kilkenny were worthy champions. It was a wonderful way to cap a four-in-a-row, being challenged both in the semi-final and royally challenged in the final itself – surely one of the best in championship history.

Finally, although it is a bit of shame that the elaborate middle-of-the-pitch presentation ceremony, complete with pyrotechnics, failed to materialise due to the insistent nature of the Kilkenny fans, I was glad to see the Kilkenny triumph of the spirit win the Battle of the Pitch Invasions. Stewards’ positions were completely overrun by jubilant Noresiders much in the same manner as the Soviets did against the Nazis in the Battle of Stalingrad. The incident produced a somewhat surreal and Monty Python –esque moment as the electronic scoreboard flashed the message “PLAN B” and the cup had to be presented in the traditional manner in the stand. For fans that may not get another opportunity to witness a four-in-a-row victory, I think that a good old-fashioned pitch invasion is the least that they deserve. When Waterford achieve their four-in-a-row at some point in the future, I fully expect to be able to express my joy in the same manner.

“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.

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.