Behind the Lines, No. 5 - Great Irish sports stories from The42, 2021

OUT NOW: 

Behind the Lines presents another collection of some of the year’s best and most relevant sports stories, produced by the award-winning team at The42. This is the fifth instalment of the critically-acclaimed annual anthology.

In this Olympic year, Gavan Casey returns to Seoul ’88 and Barcelona ’92 with Wayne McCullough to find out what it means to a man from a loyalist heartland to raise the tricolour on sport’s biggest stage; Sinéad Farrell shines a spotlight on one of this year’s stars, sprinter Phil Healy, with the help of her sister and her coach; while Cathal Dennehy reflects on the irreplaceable loss of the great Jerry Kiernan.

With unflinching honesty and bravery, Ireland soccer international Clare Shine and swimmer Karen Leach share their important personal stories, while Paddy Hill, wrongly imprisoned for 17 years as one of the ‘Birmingham Six’, tells Gavin Cooney about his struggle to leave the past behind.

Go on tour with the Irish rugby team in 1970s Fiji, carry the bags of the Jack Charlton era with Irish football’s legendary kitman, lace up your boots for a cameo role in the iconic Escape to Victory, and step into the ring with The Real Million Dollar Baby.

With something for everyone, this is unmissable long-form writing for the sports fan in your life.

Praise for previous editions of Behind the Lines 

‘Fine sports writing… as compelling as it is often amusing and touching. These are the stories that go far beyond sport, and they still resonate long after they have been read.’  Donald McRae, two-time winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. 

‘In these pages, the men and women at The42 show once more why they are the nation’s best storytellers. Irish writers are as important as Irish games, and here at that intersection is something special.’  Wright Thompson, ESPN The Magazine senior writer and author. 

‘More evidence that terrific sports writing is just terrific writing, period. The men and women writing for The42 provide an essential voice that speaks a universal language.’  Glenn Stout, series editor of The Best American Sports Writing.