Gunshots & Goalposts: The Story of Northern Irish Football

by Benjamin Roberts

Protestant v Catholic, unionist v nationalist, east versus west, their team against my team. This is the story of Northern Irish football and so much more besides: the tournaments, the near misses, the unsung heroes and unlikely tales of triumph amid adversity.

Benjamin Roberts casts his eye over the last 140 years of football in Belfast, Derry and beyond in the first wide ranging look at the game in this part of the world. George Best, David Healy, Peter Doherty and all the heroes throughout the eras are traced back to their roots ‘back home’ as Roberts shines a light on the human dimension to some of Ulster’s most famous ninety minute sons.

Exploring sectarianism, shipbuilding or sliding tackles, Roberts has finally provided a definitive account of the the beautiful game in this often troubled land.

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‘[A] thoroughly researched history, peppered with anecdotes… a book which gets that the relationship between football and politics is nowhere more keen than in the Northern Irish game.’ – Tim Marshall, Author of ‘Dirty Northern Bastards – A History of Britain’s Football Chants’

Genres: Football, Sports, History, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

Published September 25, 2017

Reviews

[Ivana - Diary of Difference · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review can also be found on: diaryofdifference.com/2018/05/24/guns...

For the lovers of football and history - this book will be of your interest. If you happen to have any connecting with Northern Ireland as well - this book is made for you!



I don’t think I fit in the description above. I love watching football - but I am not a football maniac, that knows who plays where, the club’s managers and who is on top of the Champion’s League this year. I love me some good sports matches, and I know a lot of players by name or face, but that’s about it.

Now - Gunshots & Goalposts: The Story of Northern Irish Football - the book that covers the stories of many football players in the past century in Northern Ireland.
While it covers so many stories, I wasn’t able to connect to any of the characters, and I choose to blame this on the way the book was written.

Which - is not a bad thing at all. Why? Because, this book is not meant to make you fall in love with the characters. It is instead, meant to show you the real picture of their lives, the politics that were ongoing in that time, and give you a brief history lesson of what you happened to miss in high school. All related to football, of course.

For me, it was very useful to learn a bit about the politics and history. Before I started the book, I knew NOTHING about Northern Ireland’s history. I knew NOTHING about their football history. This was a great first book for me to dive into the waters of the history of Northern Ireland's football.

The author, Benjamin Roberts, has done a wonderful job in the description and research. It covers a lot of the history period from the First and Second World War, the protestants vs catholics, the unionists vs nationalists, the east vs the west.

This book reminds me a lot of a movie that has been made in the country where I was born - Macedonia. The movie was called ‘’The Third Half’’ and deals with Macedonian Football during World War II, and the deportation of Jews from Macedonia. It reminded me a bit of this, even though in this book we don’t connect with the characters, or dive into their stories too much.

This is a three-star book for me - for the sole reason that this is not a book that I would usually read, and I wouldn’t read books similar to this one either. I enjoyed it, at times, but wouldn’t re-read it. However, I would definitely recommend it to people that love both football and history. I just prefer books where I connect with the characters.

[Jordan Florit · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit too linear and chronological for my liking. Nevertheless, well written even if not overly in depth on any one story.

[Nicola Mason · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a good, well written book. I know almost nothing about football, but was interested in the book as a way to understand just a little about the history of Northern Ireland. For the football fan, I cannot comment much, but as a person interested in history, it is fascinating. The style of writing brings the people involved to life. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and commend it to you.

[Gary Rowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Football In the shadow of diversity

Comprehensive & doesn't hide away the difficulties a football life can be In Northern Ireland. At times you think the book may be tempted to give way to elaborate more the life struggles the people have had to live for. This doesn't happen for It essentially keeps with the story , that both are Intertwined Is actual fabric to the whole life of a football existence In Northern Ireland.

[mr m a langshaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating insight into the Northern Irish game

An excellent read that gets under the skin of Northern Irish football and shines a spotlight on its good, bad and ugly.

The author has painstakingly researched this and recounts the country's footballing history with authority.

I only have one criticism: the book would greatly have benefited from exclusive, firsthand accounts of Irish football history. Some original interviews would have made a solid 4 star book a 5 star one.

[Ross Welsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a good book full of interesting little anecdotes about football in Northern Ireland. The chapter on Derry City in particular was absolutely fantastic, so much I didn’t know about a massive club. My only gripes were it seemed like it was aimed at people who have no grip of Northern Irish football at all, which feels like the wrong target audience, and just so many little typos and misspellings dotted throughout the book - more annoying than anything. Worth a read regardless.

[D H · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a very interesting book. Hard to pay attention to what’s being said as it’s very broken up. A lot of references don’t do it any favours. Nearly every page contains something along the lines of, “ speaking in Derrick’s autobiography written two years after.....”
Also the size of the book and cover doesn’t help.

[Jack Richards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gives a good chronological insight into how football began in Northern Ireland. It’s a very well researched book and one I really enjoyed reading.

The Troubles are also covered well in this book in my opinion. I didn’t really know too much about the causes of the troubles but the book offered a good insight into the violence, and also covers how it spilled over into football.

[Michael Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good

Neutral account of football and day to day life in an artificial statement in the North of ireland but a few inaccuracies

[Tom Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written book covering not only football but history as well.

[Gary Hammond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Makes a complicated history very easy to understand through the context of football

[David O'Reilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

The history of Northern Ireland over the last 100 years tild through the perspective of football. Fascinating for fans of football or otherwise it's full of incredibly well researched case studies and anecdotes, many if which are bewildering yet totally true.