Authors appearing at Hinterland Tailteann

We look forward to welcoming the following authors. Click on the images below for a short biography.

Alan Gernon

In 2016 Alan Gernon’s book Retired took a peek inside the world of the former professional footballer, and didn’t paint a pretty picture. Alan found that almost half of the annual cohort of retired professional footballers faced the threat of bankruptcy within five years of abandoning the game, while a third would be divorced within a year of hanging up their boots. Two years later Alan’s focus has switched to the murky world of the agent, the ‘bung’ and the ‘window’, in The Transfer Market: the Inside Stories. Here he explores the often dizzying movement of players between professional football clubs, and asks who benefits from these transactions. Spoiler alert, it’s often not the players!

Alison Meeke

Alison Meeke was a vital cog in the Irish Women's Hockey team which in the recent World Cup in England. Playing in midfield she helped anchor a series of heroic triumphs all the way to the final. Ali plays her club hockey for Loreto and has been capped more than 100 times for Ireland.

Alison Miller

There was a lot of rugby hoopla in 2016 when Ireland beat New Zealand in Soldier Field in Chicago. But of course that wasn’t the first Irish international rugby win against the New Zealanders! That came two years previously when the Irish women’s team inflicted the first World Cup defeat in twenty-three years on the ‘Black Ferns’. The Irish were building on their Grand Slam success in the 2013 Six Nations championship. Scoring one of two Irish tries in that historic match was winger Alison Miller. Born in Portlaoise (not a famous rugby stronghold) she began playing the game while studying at Waterford IT. She played her provincial rugby for Connacht and won thirty-six caps for her country. In addition to the 2013 Grand Slam, Alison also shared in Ireland 2015 Six Nations triumph.

Colin Stewart

Our rugby players have never done it. Neither have our soccer players. Male or female. But the summer of 2018 belonged to the Irish Women’s Hockey Team when dedication, team spirit, determination, consummate skill and that smattering of luck to which all good teams are entitled, brought them to the final of the Hockey World Cup. At the side of Head Coach Graham Shaw throughout that tournament was his assistant Colin Stewart, who had previously coached in New Zealand and the UK. Colin is also the Irish National Technical Coach and, in his club career, achieved success with Hermes, Corinthian, Pembroke and Glennane.

George Hamilton

In Belfast he’s still known as the principal cello for the Methodist College school orchestra. Listeners to RTE Lyric FM would recognise him as the erudite presenter of The Hamilton Scores. But most of us know George Hamilton as the voice of RTE sport since 1984. As a soccer commentator he is legendary (‘The nation holds its breath’ he whispered in 1990 as David O’Leary readied himself for a certain penalty against Romania in the World Cup) But George has also worked more Olympic games athletics commentary than he would care to remember and, among many other ‘markings’ covered the recent adventure of the Irish Women’s Hockey team in getting to the World Cup final. George will take us through the highs of a long and amazing career.

Jimmy Geoghegan

Jimmy Geoghegan is originally from Kildalkey—hurling country—although he played soccer himself. After studying English and History at Trinity College he abandoned any idea of an illustrious career in teaching and strayed into journalism, to our advantage and his cost. He has written for a variety of publications including the Evening Herald and a number of magazines. He worked as a sub-editor with the Farmers' Journal before landing a job in 2002 as a sports reporter/features writer with the Meath Chronicle. He has been fortunate enough to interview a wide variety of sports stars including the likes of Jack Charlton (and therein lies a tale which we hope he will tell), Johnny Giles, and many GAA greats.

Paul Kimmage

Paul Kimmage is one of Ireland’s best known and most passionate sports journalists. His uncompromising approach to his work resulted in his being named as one of the top ten most influential sportswriters in the UK in 2012 by the trade publication UK Press Gazette.

He is best known for his award-winning sporting autobiography Rough Ride, published in 1990, which laid bare the issue of drug-taking in the professional cycling peloton and won the prestigious William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. In 2011 Paul’s collaboration with the tetraplegic English rugby player, Matt Hampson, Engage won Paul a second William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. Paul will talk about ‘The joys of ghost writing’.

Paul Rouse

Paul Rouse is an academic, a sportsman and a writer. Before becoming a lecturer in history at University College, Dublin (where his principal academic interest is the history of sport) he worked as a researcher for the RTE TV series Prime Time Investigates. He is a director of the Century Ireland project and editor of historyhub.ie. Paul also played football for his home county of Offaly, and, in 2018, was given the (temporary) job of managing the county football team. He is Ireland’s foremost sports historian, with a number of books and articles to his credit, including The GAA, a People’s History with Mark Duncan and Mike Cronin. His most recent publication is The Hurlers: The First All-Ireland Championship and the Making of Modern Hurling.

Rosemary Smith

Rosemary Smith is undoubtedly one of the icons of modern Irish sport. As a champion rally driver in the 1960s and 1970s she competed with her male counterparts .. and won. In 1965 she famously beat all comers, male and female, in the Tulip Rally in the Netherlands. She, very self-consciously, blazed a trail for Irish sportswomen, competing at the highest level, including regular appearances in the much vaunted Monte Carlo Rally, as well as our domestic equivalent, the Circuit of Ireland. She began her motoring life as a navigator, but it wasn’t long before she was behind the wheel and winning major prizes. She also competed in the London-Sydney marathon (7000 miles and 11 countries) over hostile terrain. She recently published an account of her career, Driven, the only question is why it took her so long to record such an extraordinary career. Though now officially a proud octogenarian she has lost none of her chutzpah, and still likes to drive fast.

Sarah Ennis

The sport of eventing has to be the ultimate test of the skills of a horseman or horsewoman. The combined disciplines of dressage, show jumping and cross country, test the versatility of the best riders. And Sarah Ennis is one of the very best. She is one of the country’s liveliest contenders for a medal at the 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo after her 5^th placing in the 2018 World Championships, where she made a massive contribution to the Irish team’s silver medal, won in North Carolina. This followed her 7^th place overall in the 2017 European championships. Based in Dunboyne, Sarah began her riding career on her sister Nicola’s Shetland pony. (Nicola has also competed for Ireland – and shares!). Sarah began competing in dressage events as a teenager, before graduating to eventing at the age of eighteen. Despite her early background in dressage it’s the cross country element of her sport that gets her adrenaline going.

Sarah Keane

After an international sporting career in water polo Sarah Keane gave up her job as a solicitor to become the first CEO of Swim Ireland in 2004. With an Honours Degree in Law, a Masters in Commercial Law and Diplomas in both Corporate Management and Financial Management she was eminently qualified for the position. Her considerable diplomatic and legal skills were often called upon in her new role. The early 2000s was a difficult period for Irish swimming. So, who better to take the reins of the Olympic Council of Ireland from its controversial former President, Pat Hickey, after the Rio ticketing debacle? This she did in 2016, two years after being elected to the OCI board. Sarah has capably steered the organisation into calmer waters since her appointment. Sarah has a particular passion for gender inclusivity in sport and is one of the motive forces behind Swim Ireland’s #WePlay: Inspiring Girls in Sport.

Sarah O’Connor

For eight years, as Chief Executive of the Federation of Irish Sport (the representative association for Ireland’s sports governing bodies) , Sarah O’Connor, originally a solicitor by profession, built an organisation that now speaks for over 100 Irish sporting bodies and has earned the title ‘The Voice of Irish Sport’. She was responsible for the development of Governmental and commercial partnerships as well as co-ordinating and directing the “Why Irish Sport Matters” campaign designed to promote the true impact of sport in Ireland. Three years ago Sarah branched out and became Wilson Hartnell PR’s Head of Sport and, since then, has worked to encourage companies and brands to become involved in sport at all levels. In her current position Sarah deals with all aspects of sports-related communications, including sponsorship, media relations, fan engagement and sports related content creation.

Sinead Finnegan

Successful Dublin football teams tend to set Meath teeth on edge, but as Hinterland: Tailteann is a national festival we are happy to welcome one of the most accomplished Dublin Gaelic footballers of her generation, Sinead Finnegan. In 2017 she was on the Dublin team that beat Cork at the fourth attempt, to win the All Ireland. This year Dublin proved the 2017 win wasn’t a once-off, by beating their great Munster rivals all over again, to become TG4 All Ireland Ladies Senior Football champions, and to give Sinead her second All Ireland winner’s medal. Sinead is a proud supporter of the 20x20 initiative, launched earlier this year, which is designed to garner 20% more media coverage of women in sport, 20% more female participation and 20% more attendance at women's events by 2020.

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