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

Description

“To write about sport in Ireland is a serious matter. Micheal O Muircheartaigh could describe a football match like an epic battle and recite it with the musicality of a bardic poet. Con Houlihan could turn a petty squabble on the ball into a profound reflection on the nature of human life. Now add to this noble list the name of Eamonn Sweeney, whose prose is on fire as he bears witness to struggles on the playing field and in his personal life. Seamlessly woven into a blistering book that everyone who loves football, hurling or just life in general will relish enormously.” – MICHAEL HARDING

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 moment 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.