Life, Death & Hurling, The Michael Duignan Story

[Bord na Mona man]

This book is getting launched on Thursday night at 8pm in the Tullamore Court Hotel.

Extracts from the book will be serialised in the Irish Independent tomorrow and Wednesday ahead of the launch.

Life, Death & Hurling, The Michael Duignan Story
Michael Duignan spent more than a decade earning a reputation as one of the most competitive hurlers in a sport famous for its uncompromising characters. He claimed two All-Ireland winner’s medals as part of an Offaly team packed with natural ability and flair but which was saddled, unfairly in Duignan’s view, with the label of being a group of feckless mavericks. Since his retirement, he has established another reputation for himself as an equally uncompromising TV commentator, unafraid to 'tell it as he sees it'.

But, behind Duignan’s sporting success and high-profile media character,lies a more unconventional and complex man who has striven with tragedy off the sporting field. In September 2009, after a long and difficult battle, his wife, Edel, died from cancer. In Life, Death & Hurling, Michael Duignan recounts his wife’s struggle to overcome her cancer and, later, bravely accept her fate. He tells how Edel’s fight to survive drew the couple and their sons, Seán and Brian, closer than ever. But her death, and Michael’s inability to cope with her passing, brought him into an ominous phase of his life with almost devastating consequences.

In his autobiography, Michael Duignan lays bare the events, both personal and professional, which have gone into shaping him over the years. A strong, true voice that speaks on sport, life and death with authority and compassion, Life, Death & Hurling is an exceptional workby any standards. About the co-author: Pat Nolan is a native of Tullamore in Co Offaly and has worked as Gaelic Games Correspondent for the Irish Daily Mirror since January 2007. He graduated as a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer-Aided Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering from Dublin City University in 2004 and as a Master of Arts in Journalism from Dublin Institute of Technology in 2005. Aged 29, this is his first book.

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

I will probably be shot down for saying this and I dont know the man that well but there seems to be an element of profiteering involved in this and I wont elaborate to much. Suffice to say he has benefitted more than many of his colleagues from his involvement in inter county hurling and has suffered a terrible loss with the death of his wife.
But a book..??? Best of luck to him but there is a trend of GAA players launching books and saying very little & I dont think it will be top of my Xmas list (Cody's book was one of the most boring sporting books Ive read!).

[Lone Shark]

It's hardly profiteering in the sense that the man is telling a story, and it's up to those who want to buy the book to do so. It's not exactly extracting money from a captive audience.

You hit on a fair point that there isn't always a correlation between the sporting achievements of an individual and the readability of their book - Brian Cody's was an atrocious read, partially due to the fact that he's still in the game and thus was greatly restricted in terms of what he felt he could say. In contrast Christy O'Connor's books "Last Man Standing" and "The Club" were brilliant.

Michael is an outspoken individual and I'll buy the book since as an Offaly man and supporter I'd be a lot more interested than the average GAA follower, but if it's a good read, then it'll take off. There might be plenty of GAA books out there, but there is a lot of rubbish too. Good ones can be hard to find.

[llkj]

Have to say, that if you asked me if I would like to read a book about Michael Duignan, my first reaction would be to decline. However, if you asked me to read a book about Doora/Barefield in Clare, I would also decline that one too - and would have missed out on a great read. It really depends on how it is put together and whether the story of the character in the book has a particular appeal.

Whether you like Duignan or not (and I know that there are a lot of opinions out there about him), congrats to Pat Nolan for getting his first book on the shelves. His articles in the Mirror are always well written and factually correct, which seems to be a hard thing for a lot of national journalists to get right!

I'll have a goo at the indo tomorrow and see make my mind up after that.

[GreatDayForTheParish]

'The Club' was some read. A book about death told through sport - fantastic.

[Ahlethimoutwithit]

Aye, The Club was one of my favourite books. Profiteering was a kinder word than what I was thinking of, and I'll say no more. As i say he has benefitted more than most and I would like to see some of the lads in the background but who played a bigger role taking what would be a great opportunity to give an insight into one of the most talented teams in our history, (Whelahan, John Troy, Hubie Rigney).
Aside, I hope himself and his sons are doing well given their terrible loss.

[durra1]

Ahlethimoutwithit you said it yourself so I am going to shoot you down.

No man who hurled on that great side of the nineties who now wants to capitalise (as you allege) in whatever way he chooses off the back of those efforts can be faulted.
There were practically no rewards on offer outside of a handy score in the Bridge House / Melbas, a few expenses for the petrol and free pints in Doheny and Nesbitts unlike today where there are far more kickbacks available to high profile players.

While not wanting to cast aspersions on the life experiences from others on that great side, it’s fair to say that MD has lived life more than most in the panel.

He played both codes for the county. He’s played rugby to a respectable standard with Bucs and Naas. He has worked as a PAYE employee in Dublin and Naas before returning home to self-employment. He’s carved out a fine nice for himself as a respected pundit. He’s raised a family and suffered a tremendous loss that most of us will be lucky enough never to appreciate.

I wouldn’t know but I’m sure its cathartic to write about something like that.

You’re displaying your commercial ignorance by talking about ‘profiteering’. How many books will he sell? Maybe 5000 at a push after all the giveaway copies. These days people wait for the juicy parts to be published on the internet. What percentile of the net sales does he take after the vast majority is taken by the publisher and Pat Nolan gets his justifiable share? The answer is damn all. He might claim an artist’s exemption tax break but that’s the height of the advantage in a GAA player writing a book. It doesn’t share the same profile as international sports.

He’s entitled to build his public profile because that’s the space he’s in now. How many houses are selling in Tullamore these days?

What have most contributors to this forum done which is a more worthy life story than MDs autobiography. My guess is f-all!

You’ve obviously picked up something in the rumour mill about MD that’s prompted your post.

We've all heard a few of them but none Ive heard justify this kind of small town begrudgery – alive and well as always.

[the bare biffo]

Well said durra1. Agree 100%

[Bord na Mona man]

Writing biographies is fairly standard these days, so this is hardly ground breaking scheme. I don't recall any past or present Offaly players having done anything like this before, so this is a welcome departure.

The GAA and sport would be a poorer place if those involved never wrote books or gave any sort of an insight.
Like how they got there, what is involved, what really happened behind the scenes. What you see of a sportsperson in the 70, 80 or 90 minutes is only a tiny snippet of their lives.

As mentioned, the standard of these can vary. Great players can write awful boring books.
"I played well that day and a I scored 1-6. The next day I scored 1-4 and set up a goal. We went on to win the All Ireland and proved our critics wrong. Blah blah."

[kingscounty]

good luck to michael,not everyone gets a chance to write a book and it gets people talking about offaly again i hope as we have fallen off the hurling radar in the last 10 years. the man and his sons lost a wife and a mother so im sure it will go into the way they dealt with that which can help people get by in difficult times to.to many lads out there putting lads down all the time,i dont know duignan but id wish him the best,after all he has won more than most of us on here im sure. p.s codys book was brutal bad what a let down.

[Plain of the Herbs]

Really enjoyed the chapter in today’s Indo. It has all the makings of ‘unputdownable’. Today’s serialisation concentrated on the ‘summer of ‘98’. Sets the record straight on Keating’s carry-on in 1998. I well remember the chorus of boos he got from the Clare crowd in Thurles too. I never knew the stayed overnight in the Tullamore Court on Saturday nights in between training late on the Saturday evenings and early Sunday mornings.

Some interesting thoughts on what the back-door did to the Leinster Final, the stroke on David Forde and the Jimmy Cooney stuff. The line ""Jaysus Jimmy, I was never sent off in my life" which was true" is brilliant. It is also not true - MD was sent off v Tullamore in Birr a year before! Not that that matters.

If you have the paper, look at the main photo and the piece gone out of the top of Duignan’s hurl! One small gripe. What’s a ‘hurley’? It’s hurley, hurley, hurley.

As for Cody’s book, Brian Cody’s was an atrocious read mainly because Martin Breheny is so dreary he could only get one faintly humorous story out of Cody, the one about sweeping the dressing-room floor with the broom.

As for ‘The Club’ I never really took to that and actually never finished it. It seemed to me like one boring team meeting after another and I found it became quite repetitive long before the middle.

Best wishes to Michael Duignan and to Pat Nolan with the book.

(I was going to say "good luck with the book" but it would sound like that Dermot Morgan / Gemma Craven scene from Fr. Ted.)

[azoffaly]

Best of luck to Michael with the book. He should have a great story to tell, with obvious hearbreak as well.

I agree with POTH about 'The Club'. Maybe it was because I was expecting a lot better but it seemed to be 'Shite result, team meeting, poor training, young lads don't care, next match, shite result, team meeting' ad infinitum.

[corner back]

Cody's book was awful and was always bound to be with Breheny involved.

I thought the Club was good enough, esp the personal stuff wrt his daughter and Ger Hoey. Anyone catch Manchan Magan(?) on the John Murray Show yesterday raving about "The Club" despite the initially being appalled by the idea of reading a GAA book. Very entertaining stuff.

[The Magpie]

Good luck to the begrudgers, but I'm looking forward to Duignan's book.

And while we're also considering the merits of others:

http://www.aparishfarfromhome.com/about/

[Bord na Mona man]

Some more good snippets in today's Indo. (I didn't buy, it just read it over someone's shoulder).

It suggests the book will be fairly frank in what it divulges. There are some accounts of dust ups both on and off the field.

It should also help shine some more light on a remarkable era in Offaly hurling. Very little has been written about it and rarely has it been deeply delved into. The chapter on Offaly in Denis Walsh's "Hurling: The Revolution Years" is probably the best account so far.