{"id":184,"date":"2009-08-30T22:04:27","date_gmt":"2009-08-30T21:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/?p=184"},"modified":"2009-08-31T22:04:37","modified_gmt":"2009-08-31T21:04:37","slug":"ned-power-sporting-biography-extract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/?p=184","title":{"rendered":"Ned Power Sporting Biography Extract"},"content":{"rendered":"

In May 1963, my older brother Sean was born.\u00a0 In another extract from the forthcoming biography on Ned Power “My Father: A Hurling Revolutionary”, here’s an insight into how hurling matches marked some of the more monumental events in his life.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My grandmother, it must be said, idolised my father.\u00a0 To her, he was as perfect a son-in-law as you could get:\u00a0 he was handsome, charming, diligent, hard-working, healthy, he had a reputable steady occupation and fine standing in the community and he wasn\u2019t a drinker.\u00a0 She readily forgave any of dad\u2019s transgressions and would plead with my mother to do likewise, if and when the occasion called for it.<\/p>\n

That evening, Julia had a very anxious wait.\u00a0 She had her hands full looking after a little toddler and her daughter was in hospital hoping to give birth again.\u00a0 The hours ticked by.\u00a0 Ned\u2019s game was at seven, which means it would be over at eight, which means that, failing incident, her son-in-law would be home no later than half past nine or ten o\u2019clock.<\/p>\n

As ten o\u2019clock came and went, my grandmother began to feel certain that Dad must have visited the hospital.\u00a0 The sooner he was back from there, the greater the likelihood was that everything had gone smoothly.\u00a0 At eleven o\u2019clock, my father\u2019s Ford Anglia pulled up on the street outside.\u00a0 Granny rushed to the door, opened it and stood there awaiting some news from my father.\u00a0 He was calmly removing hurleys and gear from the boot.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell?\u201d she finally said.\u00a0 \u201cIs there any news?\u201d<\/p>\n

My father looked startled for a moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u00a0 Oh yes\u2026 We got beaten!\u00a0 And I broke my best hurley off Mackey McKenna.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, no\u2026 What about Gretta?\u00a0 Did you hear any news about Gretta and the baby?\u201d<\/p>\n

My father, nonplussed and with complete confidence in a successful birth and in everyone being in good health just said something like:\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m sure it\u2019s fine.\u00a0 Sure, we\u2019ll give the hospital a ring there.\u201d<\/p>\n

He rang the hospital and was informed that everything was fine, that he was now the proud father of a baby boy and that both mother and child were doing well.\u00a0 He looked to my grandmother and said:\u00a0 \u201cThere you are \u2013 a baby boy.\u00a0 They\u2019re both grand.\u201d<\/p>\n

“My Father: A Hurling Revolutionary, the life and times of Ned Power” is out on paperback at the end of November 2009.\u00a0 Click here<\/a> for further information, pre-order and excerpt.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In May 1963, my older brother Sean was born.\u00a0 In another extract from the forthcoming biography on Ned Power “My Father: A Hurling Revolutionary”, here’s an insight into how hurling matches marked some of the more monumental events in his … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9kxa7-2Y","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":188,"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions\/188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}