Hold the back page - and now read on

Sports writing is far from an exact science. For many years in Ireland it consisted, for the most part, of blow by blow, point by point, shot by shot, punch by punch descriptions of what happened on the field or the golf course, the boxing ring, the tennis court or the race-track. The arrival of television changed much of that and greater demands were made on those employed in the print media to be wider in the summaries and their reports of matches.

These had already been seen in sitting-rooms around the country and a stark report in the newspapers the following day became less than adequate. Now the word "analyst" began to rear its ugly head more and more as opinion became more important than fact.

Eventually what had become known as "colour writing" gave way to descriptive articles until the details of the event in chronological order became, almost, secondary.

Many might feel that this transformation in sports writing was not for the better but time was moving on and change was inevitable. This was particularly true in Ireland where, it is fair to say, good writing about sport was at a premium and limited to a handful of good journalists who really cared about sport itself and the way it was presented and described.

Into that scene came a huge man from Kerry in the early 1970s who broke many moulds and who, mirabile dictu, continues to do so; his name is Con Houlihan.

Regarded at first as something of an oddity because of his great size and somewhat eccentric way, he soon earned the respect of those who loved sport and what was written about it. He is now accepted as the authentic voice of the classical sports writer even though his first pulpit on the back page of the Evening Press has been lost to us.

The term "gentle giant" might have been coined for him although some of us who have seen the odd flash of temper are glad that they have been few and far between. What can be accepted by all is that Con Houlihan has been a towering figure in Irish sports writing, in more ways than one, for the past 25 years.

That is why it is such a happy occasion that another collection of his work has been published.

????????and It ensures that his contribution to his craft will survive for those who seek to follow in his footsteps, although the chances of him being matched or overtaken are slim. Most of the new collection, launched by Tony Hanahoe in The Portobello which is contagious to what Con refers to as his "town house" last Wednesday night, comes from his days at the much lamented Evening Press. One suspects that he pines for the old place where many of these pieces were honed. He hankers after Burgh Quay. With Goldsmith he has a longing, expressed thus:

"And, as the hare whom hounds and horns pursue,

Pants to the place from which at first she flew.

I still had thoughts, my long vexations past

Here to return and die at home at last".

Con's latest collection of his contributions is called The Back Page, a reference to the place where most of his finest pieces appeared. His broad canvas includes, as becomes a Kerryman, Gaelic football, horse and dog racing, fishing, turf cutting, drinking and much else which binds people together. In a splendid introduction Eoghan Corry recalls some of Con's triumphs and retells just two of Con's deathless asides. Having referred to Con as "wandering McGillycuddy Reek" Corry mentions Con's descriptions of two of the most famous goals in Gaelic football history.

He described Mikey Sheehy's goal against Dublin in the 1978 All-Ireland final thus: "And Paddy Cullen headed back to his goal like a woman who had smelled a cake burning".

That great day of Kerry triumph was described by the Kerry County Board chairman Ger McKenna thus from the back of a lorry in Killarney late on the following night: "Mar a bhi as dthus, mar ata anois agus mar a bheas go brea" (As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be).

It was not to be. At the end of the 1982 final between Kerry and Offaly, fate intruded upon McKenna's vision when Seamus Darby ruined the dream of "five in a row".

Con's summary was, as ever, quick, pithy and finely tuned. He described Darby as "the wren who stowed away in the eagle's plumage" after he had escaped the plumage of Tommy Doyle and scored the goal which foiled the Kerry effort to set a new benchmark in the history of the game. In the history of sports writing in this country, however, nobody is likely ever to match the breadth of vision, the literary quality or the way that the sentences and ideas combine to an agreeable and entertaining whole in what Con has given us over the last quarter of a century. Another All-Ireland victory for Kerry, one suspects. As he might write himself - now read on.

The Back Page By Con Houlihan (Boglark Press £8.99)