NEW BOOK | DÁIL STARS: FROM THE PLAYING FIELDS OF IRELAND TO THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Martin Ferris is a GAA Dáil Star

MARTIN FERRIS TD features in this just-published book as an Under-21 All-Ireland title winner as “an IRA fugitive on the run”.
We were a bit slow and the tenacious Kerry star got his hands on our review copy and it couldn’t be prised from his steely grip so a full review will have to wait for another day.
Author Conor McMorrow, a Political Correspondent with the Sunday Tribune is a native of Monaghan now living in Dublin. Conor is a member of the Seán Mac Diarmada GAA Club
In Dáil Stars (Mentor Books, €16.99), Conor McMorrow picks an All-Star team of politicians whose prowess on the playing field or in GAA administration has been  matched by their success in Irish politics.
By devoting a chapter to each of the 15 ‘Dáil Stars’ the book tells each player/politician’s  individual GAA and political story using candid interviews and archive material for the historical figures.
Among the Dáil Stars featured are Eoin O’Duffy, Austin Stack, Jack Lynch, Dan Spring, Jimmy Deenihan, Martin Ferris, Henry Kenny and more.
It includes:-

• How Blueshirts founder and former Ulster GAA Secretary Eoin O’Duffy invited a Nazi spy to an All-Ireland final;
• How Mayo football star and TD Henry Kenny, father of Enda Kenny, invited TDs to his own all-night ‘wake’ in the Dáil bar;
• Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris on winning an under-21 All-Ireland title as an IRA fugitive on the run;
• Fine Gael TD and Kerry legend Jimmy Deenihan on his heart-to-heart with John B Keane about entering politics;
• Six-time All-Ireland winning dual star Jack Lynch and when the whiskey goes ‘below Thurles’;
• How Seán Flanagan, the GAA’s ‘original Roy Keane’, tried to scrap his own government department as a minister;
• Des Foley, the Arms Trial and the medal robbery;
• Plus the ‘Also-Rans’: GAA stars who unsuccessfully stood for election.

Certainly worth a look - especially when Martin Ferris gives us our ball back!