The man behind the wire: Offaly historians played key role in excellent new biography of Irish sporting lives

TWO Offaly historians have played leading roles in the publication of an excellent new biography of Irish sporting lives.

Tullamore man, Terry Clavin is one of the joint editors of Irish Sporting Lives while Durrow native and former Tullamore senior footballer Paul Rouse penned the introduction for it as well as several of the biographies.

The book features sixty biographies of Irish sports people. It gives a tremendous insight into their lives and careers, concentrating on their sporting contribution.

The book is almost 400 pages long and is very readable. It has managed to achieve the difficult balancing act of keeping the profiles comparatively short but still providing sufficient detail to give a true picture of the featured personalties – without being top heavy with detail.

It has also managed to give a fair crack at participants across the sporting divides. While the GAA games of football and hurling are the most popular in Ireland, followed by soccer and rugby with golf, athletics and boxing also having significant followings, it manages to transcend these sports.

They do feature promimently and it also includes famous administrators such as the founding secretary of the GAA, Michael Cusack but it also features very minority sports – rock climbing, mountaineering, croquet, fox hunting, tennis and much more is included.

The inclusion of excellent performers from minority sports is part of the attraction of this new book. While nationally famous people such as hurler Christy Ring, snooker superstar Alex Higgins; rugby folk hero Jack Kyle and soccer icon George Best are featured, it includes many that the majority of sports fans simply wouldn't have heard of.

For example, it includes somewhere between 20 to 30 people that I either never heard of or would only have a vague idea of what their sport was or what they did in it. It is great that the exploits of people like this are being brought to the attention of the Irish sporting public and that this book is not a mere celebration of the famous footballers, hurlers, soccer and rugby stars that the country loves so much and whose excellence has been appropriately acknowledged in a variety of other publications and forums.

There are a couple of main criteria for inclusion. Firstly, it is a biography of people who have passed away and secondly, they either must have been born in Ireland with careers in Ireland, born in Ireland with careers outside Ireland or born outside Ireland but with careers or part of their career in Ireland – this has enabled the inclusion of soccer manager Jack Charlton, though his biography concentrates on his role as Ireland supremo and not his playing career in England, which is equally fascinating.

The book is a valuable addendum to the Dictionary of Irish Biography, a project of the Royal Irish Academy. Not enough people know about or utilise this absolutely tremendous asset. The Dictionary of Irish Biography features details of nearly 11,000 deceased Irish people – it essentially tells the story of Ireland through the lives of prominent men and women, borh in Ireland, north and south, who made their mark either inside or outside of Ireland.

It is now available online and many of the profiles are breathtaking in the scope of the detail provided and the insight it gives to the people featured.

Over 540 of the featured people are from the sporting world and 60 of thse have been selected for this book. Some of the biographies have been shortened from their profile on the Dictionary of Irish Biography; others have been adjusted to include newly discovered information and some have been shortened, with the non sporting aspects of their lives omitted or reduced.

Terry Clavin co-edited the book with Turlough O'Connor and several of his profiles are included. Clavin is a historian who joined the Dictionary of Irish Biography in 2006 and has published over 400 biographies in it. Some of these make for captivating reading as they very much provide a warts and all snapshot of the profiled. Terry comes from a strong sporting background – his father Mick was a prominent rugby player with Tullamore in the 1970s and was a key figure as they won the Provincial Towns Cup in 1976. From Lynally, he also played with St Carthage's in their 1973 Senior Football Championship final defeat by Tullamore – Terry's brother David was also an excellent Tullamore rugby player in the 1990s. Terry gave a very well received talk on the new book and his career to Tullamore Probus on Tuesday morning.

A doctor of history in UCD, Paul Rouse is well known locally and nationally. He won Senior Football Championship medals with Tullamore in 2000 and 2002, he was a selector when they won in 2007 and 2013 and he was Offaly senior football interim manager after Stephen Wallace was removed in mid season in 2018. He has a national prominence through his media work on television, radio and in print.

The new book is published by the Royal Irish Academy and is available locally and nationally.

Quick demise for Offaly club teams

IF Leinster club championships are an accurate measurement of where a county stands, then the 2022 season does not look good for Offaly.

All three of the representatives in the Leinster club football championships have bitten the dust already and there are just two hurling teams still in the race with Shinrone and Tullamore playing their first game next Saturday.

The fate of Offaly's football teams has provided food for thought. Rhode were beaten by Meath's Ratoath in the Leinster Club Senior Football Championship on Sunday last. There was certainly no shame in defeat for Rhode. They competed very well, fought with every inch of their fibre and were not far away.

Having said that, Ratoath were the better team on the day and deserved to advance. Rhode played close to as well as they could, though they would have expected a much bigger return than just two points from play from a talent laden attack.

Bracknagh went very quickly, suffering a shock defeat to Kilkenny's Mullinvat in the Leinster Club Intermediate Football Championship. Mullinvat are the Kilkenny senior champions and they have shown their worth since then, beating Westmeath's Shandonagh last Saturday. It was still a disappointing defeat for the Offaly senior “B” champions and they would have expected to advance.

In some ways, their defeat was not a huge surprise. They were outstanding in their Offaly Senior “B” Football Championship final win over Clonbullogue and were very highly motivated for the clash with their parish neighbours. Before that, however, they had blown hot and cold. Walsh Island could and perhaps should have beaten them in normal time in the semi-final and Bracknagh had not been convincing in some of their group games. Their county final performance was their best of the season by a long way.

Ballycommon were a bit unlucky in the Leinster Club Junior Football Championship. They were very hungry to make their mark here and after beating Kilkenny's Erins Own, they were edged out by Multyfarnham of Westmeath last Saturday. It was similar to the way Rhode went out. Ballycommon competed very well and it wouldn't have took a lot for them to have won it. They were very close to getting a couple of goals late on but over the hour plus, Multyfarnham were the better team.

Fate did go against Ballycommon. They were without injured county star David Dempsey for the two games and they possibly would have won on Saturday with him on board. Influential midfielder Tom Mealiffe was a late withdrawal with injury, only coming on late on and he was a cruel loss. He has been in excellent form at midfield for Ballycommon this year and with him gone and Dempsey also out, Multyfarnham were able to take the midfield honours.

Ballycommon will wonder what would have happened if they had either or both of Dempsey and Mealiffe on board. They had showed their intent with three of their key players, Karl and Conor Dunne and Barry Bracken lining out for them despite Tullamore Rugby Club playing an important All-Ireland League Division 2C game in Omagh at the same time. The trio are key players for Tullamore and have an obvious passion for the oval game. It wasn't an easy decision but having played for Ballycommon all season and savoured the joy of winning the Intermediate Football Championship this year, they made the call that they really had to make.

The quick demise of the three representatives does make you wonder about where Offaly football is at the moment. There is plenty of talent in the county with the All-Ireland 2021 U-20 champions developing but a strong county does need club teams making progress at various grades and that hasn't happened this year.

It will be interesting to see how long the remaining hurling representatives survive. Shinrone travel to Naas for their Leinster Club Senior Hurling Championship opener on Saturday while Tullamore are at home to Fr Dalton's of Westmeath in the Leinster Club Intermediate Hurling Championship on the same date.

Both will fancy their chances of progressing while Shamrocks are gone from the Leinster Club Junior Hurling Championship, evicted by Kildare opposition, Eire Og Corrachoill. You never know but no one will be too confident about an Offaly hurling side winning a Leinster club title this year and it all does provide food for thought.