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John Doyle: The Greatest Hurling Story Ever Told
312 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
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April 23, 2012
First up let’s get the following out of the way.
John Doyle is the greatest Tipperary GAA icon. If Hurling was to be commemorated with a Mount Rushmore, the Holycross man’s imposing visage would be centre stage hewn in granite.
His handle amongst the Gaels of Tipperary was “the Legend” He spent nineteen years in a Tipperary jersey unbroken by injury. He won eight All Ireland Senior Hurling Medals from the field of play, Ten Munster Senior Hurling Medals and a record Eleven National Hurling League Medals. If you wanted a glace cherry on top of that fanfare of achievements: Doyle won eight Railway Cup Medals – back when they counted for something.
John Harrington’s brief was daunting. How to balance between outright hagiography and doing justice to the subject matter. The Legend demanded a sweeping epic – Harrington didn’t let the side down with his magisterial work which is quite simply the finest example of hurling biography in recent years.
Apart from the high standard of research and attention to detail – the defining feature of this book is the skill that the author deploys in recreating the hurling world of the 1950s and 1960s with an almost real time feel for action and setting.
Harrington also manages to slay a couple of mistruths about the subject matter – the caricature of Doyle as a lumbering hatchet man is dis-spelled by a portrait of a warrior-athlete who would have adorned any playing era.
The central characters in the Doyle story are his wife Anne and the mercurial Paddy Leahy a second father to Doyle and the manager of the all conquering Tipperary team of 1958-1965. the book does justice to the role of both. This is no one dimensional telling of a hurling life, rather we get a skilful depiction of a complex and at times fragile human being.
There are plenty of anecdotes along the way to entertain the reader – many from the club scene which belie a liberal helping by the author from the pages of the late Bob Stakelum’s outstanding history of Holycross-Ballycahill GAA club.
If one was to nit pick there are places that the author didn’t go – Doyle’s short lived political career that ultimately ended in failure and his more successful but at times controversial GAA administrative career.
Harrington does Doyle considerable justice in his book – for the John Wayne of Tipp Hurling that’s high praise enough.
If there’s one GAA book you read this year – make it Doyle: The Greatest Hurling Story ever told.
John Doyle is the greatest Tipperary GAA icon. If Hurling was to be commemorated with a Mount Rushmore, the Holycross man’s imposing visage would be centre stage hewn in granite.
His handle amongst the Gaels of Tipperary was “the Legend” He spent nineteen years in a Tipperary jersey unbroken by injury. He won eight All Ireland Senior Hurling Medals from the field of play, Ten Munster Senior Hurling Medals and a record Eleven National Hurling League Medals. If you wanted a glace cherry on top of that fanfare of achievements: Doyle won eight Railway Cup Medals – back when they counted for something.
John Harrington’s brief was daunting. How to balance between outright hagiography and doing justice to the subject matter. The Legend demanded a sweeping epic – Harrington didn’t let the side down with his magisterial work which is quite simply the finest example of hurling biography in recent years.
Apart from the high standard of research and attention to detail – the defining feature of this book is the skill that the author deploys in recreating the hurling world of the 1950s and 1960s with an almost real time feel for action and setting.
Harrington also manages to slay a couple of mistruths about the subject matter – the caricature of Doyle as a lumbering hatchet man is dis-spelled by a portrait of a warrior-athlete who would have adorned any playing era.
The central characters in the Doyle story are his wife Anne and the mercurial Paddy Leahy a second father to Doyle and the manager of the all conquering Tipperary team of 1958-1965. the book does justice to the role of both. This is no one dimensional telling of a hurling life, rather we get a skilful depiction of a complex and at times fragile human being.
There are plenty of anecdotes along the way to entertain the reader – many from the club scene which belie a liberal helping by the author from the pages of the late Bob Stakelum’s outstanding history of Holycross-Ballycahill GAA club.
If one was to nit pick there are places that the author didn’t go – Doyle’s short lived political career that ultimately ended in failure and his more successful but at times controversial GAA administrative career.
Harrington does Doyle considerable justice in his book – for the John Wayne of Tipp Hurling that’s high praise enough.
If there’s one GAA book you read this year – make it Doyle: The Greatest Hurling Story ever told.
Displaying 1 of 1 review