Stars plucked from the sky

It remains one of the most famous of Irish sporting moments. In the 1978 All-Ireland final, Mike Sheehy caught Paddy Cullen off his line and curled a free-kick over his head and into the goal. Many have written about it, but none quite like this . . .

"Suddenly Paddy dashed back towards the goal like a woman who smells a cake burning. The ball won the race and it curled inside the near post as Paddy crashed into the outside of the net and lay against it like a fireman who had returned to find his station ablaze."

Con Houlihan. Of course.

The account appeared on the back page of the Evening Press, home to Houlihan's columns for several years and, consequently, home to the most brilliant and warmest of writing.

It is included in More Than A Game, a collection of Houlihan's work spanning almost 30 years, with an introduction by Tom Humphries of The Irish Times, the first title published by Liberties Press, set up this year by Peter O'Connell and Sean O'Keeffe. They hope to publish four more titles next year, but they'll have their work cut out to match this début. It's a gem.

Those given the task of narrowing three decades of Houlihan's writings down to just the 57 featured "sporting essays" will, presumably, take on an easier challenge next time, like climbing Mount Everest blindfolded and without oxygen.

The task must have been akin to plucking stars from the sky, just when you think you've gathered the brightest you spot 10 more shining even more brilliantly. It is, though, a job well done, a sprawling collection showing Houlihan at his finest, with subject matter ranging from Stephen Roche's Tour de France triumph to Ireland's 1985 Triple Crown, from Desert Orchid to Barry McGuigan, from Ronnie Delaney to 'Hare Coursing in Donabate'.

And all the way through shines Houlihan's appreciation, love and knowledge of sport, and his gentle humour. "The wonderhorse lost no prestige at Cheltenham," he wrote of racehorse Desert Orchid, "defeat made him even more a folk hero - it indicated that he was human." When his beloved St Patrick's Athletic moved, temporarily, from Inchicore to Harold's Cross, two miles down the road, he recalled that the unhappy St Pat's faithful "complained about the weather there". And it was in Inchicore that, he says, he received the "highest tribute of my life" when he saw "Con Houlihan says that Pat's will never die" written on the back of a toilet door.

"I greatly respect people who go in to the arena and seek glory while risking humiliation," he wrote, encapsulating the regard he has for sports men and women, explaining why an "acid tongue" has never been, and will never be, a feature of his writing. If he has a criticism to make he'll do it with a tender wit. In his piece on the 1978 All-Ireland hurling final he suspected that "at least five" of the Kilkenny team weren't as fit as they might have been. "If they were jockeys," he wrote, "they would be entitled to the full allowance."

The book is a glorious reminder of the days when the Evening Press came into the house. After the briefest of glances at the front page, over it was flipped, and down you sat to savour Con Houlihan's latest column. You knew it was "more than a game", you just couldn't find the words. But he always could, and continues to do so in the pages of The Sunday World.

• Mary Hannigan is a sports journalist with The Irish Times

Con Houlihan: More Than A Game - Selected Sporting Essays

By Con Houlihan

Liberties Press, 301pp. €25