The Last Ditch: How One GAA Championship Gave a Sportswriter Back His Life

(Paperback)

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Description

In the summer of 2024, sports columnist Eamonn Sweeney set out to follow the All-Ireland championships around the country, retracing footsteps he'd first laid down in his 2004 bestseller The Road to Croker. But there was one big problem.

For many years, he had struggled with a crippling travel phobia that left him largely confined to his hometown in West Cork. To fulfil his publishing contract, he had to face his deepest fears.

The Last Ditch is a story about mental health, hidden shame and a life-changing epiphany in a remote train station. It's about a hurling championship which may have been the greatest ever played and a football championship which definitely was not. It's about the unlikely triumphs of Clare and Armagh, the remarkable renaissance of the Cork hurlers, the return of Jim McGuinness and Donegal, the toppling of an apparently invincible Limerick, Galway's triple heartbreak, the rise of the women's games, the shocks and the cliff-hangers on the pitch.

Off the field, it is the story of one man's embrace of a changing Ireland as he takes back his life. Both an unforgettable sports memoir and a deeply personal account, The Last Ditch is a heartfelt celebration of resilience, the healing power of connection and the unifying spirit of the GAA.

Author Bio

Eamonn Sweeney writes the Hold The Back Page column for the Sunday Independent and a Monday sports column for the Irish Independent. He is a former Irish Sports Columnist of the year and has written seven books, including the novels Waiting for the Healer and The Photograph and the sports books, There's Only One Red Army and The Road to Croker.

Born in Sligo in 1968, he lives in Skibbereen and is the father of three daughters. He is the owner of a dog and a bearded dragon and headed three goals during his otherwise undistinguished under-age gaelic football career. All the other personal stuff is in the book.