Longlist For Williamhill.com Irish Sports Book Of The Year Announced

The longlist for the 2009 williamhill.com Irish Sports Book of the Year award was announced today. With a record number of entries for the award the judging panel selected 23 books on the long list for this year’s competition.

With the 125th anniversary of the GAA being celebrated this year, the list is dominated by Gaelic Games themed books. Some of those competing for this year’s award include Dónal Óg Cusack’s “Come What May”, with Tom Humphries, Billy Morgan’s autobiography “Rebel Rebel” and the story of Brian Cody’s remarkable life in hurling, “Cody”, written with Martin Breheny. Mickey Harte’s autobiography “Harte: Presence is the Only Thing” with Michael Foley is also included as is Tadgh Kennelly’s “Unfinished Business” and Damian Lawlor’s tale of a year with Waterford’s footballers, “Working on a Dream”.

Former Ireland rugby coach Eddie O’Sullivan is also in contention for the award with his book “Never Die Wondering” which was penned with Vincent Hogan. “Rags to Riches” by Barry Coughlan looks at the history of Munster rugby right up to their Heineken Cup loss to Leinster earlier this year.

Another book from the rugby genre is Alan English’s “Grand Slam: How Ireland Achieved Rugby Greatness”, which documents the Irish team winning their first grand slam in 61 years. In “Hanging from the Rafters”, Kieran Shannon details the explosion of basketball in Ireland in the 1980’s and the influx of new players it brought into the country.

This year’s award also features “Bernard Dunne: A Legend in the Making” by Barry Flynn, which chronicles Dunne’s career to date including his recent knockout defeat to Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym in September, while Tadgh De Brun’s “Tunnel Vision” gives a unique look behind the scenes at Irish sports events from the last 40 years. “Vintage Crop” by Dermot Weld looks at the career of the legendary horse and how it became the first overseas horse to win the Melbourne Cup.

Tony Kenny, PR Manager for William Hill, said “This year we have seen unprecedented interest in the award and the standard again has been very high as always. There is no surprise seeing the amount of Gaelic Games books in contention with the year that is in it but there are also some excellent books across a variety of sports so we should have a winner as good if not better than those who have gone before,” Kenny said.

The williamhill.com Irish Sports Book of the Year was established in 2006 to celebrate the quality of Irish sports writing and the standard of sports books that are produced in Ireland every year. The winner of the inaugural award was Paul McGrath with his harrowing tale of the ups and downs of his professional football career in “Back from the Brink”, which was written with Vincent Hogan.

In 2007, Trevor Brennan’s autobiography with Gerry Thornley, “Heart and Soul” detailed Brennan’s journey through the professional rugby ranks in Ireland and France and his infamous altercation with a fan, which led to the end of his successful career. In 2008 the award produced one of the greatest Irish sports story’s never told. Tommy Byrne’s “Crashed and Byrned” was the story of an Irish racing driver hailed as one of the world’s greatest, even better than World champion Ayrton Senna, but never made it to the top.

This year’s judging panel is made up of ten of Ireland’s best sports commentators and experts. The panel includes RTE rugby pundit and Newstalk presenter George Hook, RTE’s Eamon Dunphy, Today FM and TV3 presenter Matt Cooper and Setanta Sports’ Paul Dempsey.

Nominations for 2009 WilliamHill.com Irish Sports Book of the Year
• Never Die Wondering – Eddie O’Sullivan with Vincent Hogan (Random House Press)
• Bernard Dunne: A Legend in the Making – Barry Flynn (Liberties Press)
• Rebel Rebel: The Billy Morgan Story – Billy Morgan with Billy Keane (Ballpoint Press)
• Harte: Presence is the Only Thing – Mickey Harte with Michael Foley (Poolbeg)
• The GAA: A People’s History – Mike Cronin, Mark Duncan and Paul Rouse (Collins Press)
• Rags to Riches: The Story of Munster – Barry Coughlan (Collins Press)
• The GAA: An Oral History – John Scally (Mainstream Publishing)
• Micheál’s GAA Odyssey – Micheál Ó’Muircheartaigh with Conor McKeon and Sean Potts (Mainstream Publishing)
• Around the World in GAA Days – Aaron Dunne (Mainstream Publishing)
• Voices from the Back of the Bus – Stewart McKinney (Mainstream Publishing)
• Tunnel Vision: Behind the Scenes at Great Irish Sports Events – Tadgh de Brún (Mentor Books)
• Working on a Dream – Damian Lawlor (Mentor Books)
• Free Money – Declan Lynch (Transworld Publishers)
• Come What May: The Autobiography – Dónal Óg Cusack with Tom Humphries (Penguin Ireland)
• Vintage Crop: Against All Odds – Dermot Weld (Gill and MacMillan)
• Dream On: One Hackers Challenge – John Richardson (Blackstaff Press)
• Tales of the Dogs – John Martin (Blackstaff Press)
• Unlimited Heartbreak – Henry Martin (Collins Press)
• Cody: The Autobiography – Brian Cody with Martin Breheny (Irish Sports Publishing)
• In the Blood – Anne Holland (O’Brien Press)
• Unfinished Business – Tadgh Kennelly with Scott Gullan (Mercier Press)
• Hanging from the Rafters – Kieran Shannon (Evening Echo Publications)
• Grand Slam: How Ireland Achieved Rugby Greatness – Alan English (Penguin Ireland)

Ends

For further information:
Tony Kenny – William Hill – 086 858 9276