Sport may have been badly hit by the pandemic in the past two years but the Galway GAA Annual, in the shops this weekend, has 124 pages of reviews, features, tributes, trips down memory lane and spectacular photographs.
It all makes for compelling reading through the festive season. And, as a double-issue (2021 and 2020), it will serve to remind Gaelic Games followers that much more happened in competitive sport since March of last year than everybody thought would be possible.
Among the highlights are the Galway camogie team's thrilling victory over Cork in the All-Ireland final, the county senior football championship breakthrough by Val Daly's brilliant team, Mountbellew-Moylough, after Corofin's long reign at the top; St Thomas' four-in-a-row triumph in the senior hurling championship; the sustained brilliance of Galway's U-17 hurlers in recent years, and the joy brought to football followers by the Galway U-20s a year ago.
There's also a tribute to the remarkable sporting life and times of Joe Canning; memories of many 'greats' of Galway GAA who are gone but will not be forgotten; two special items of interest to Ballinasloe readers; a look at where the divisional and county titles went in all grades and age groups, and two pages of spectacular aerial pics of four Galway GAA venues: Kenny Park, Athenry; Duggan Park, Ballinasloe; Pearse Stadium and Tuam Stadium.
Hurling followers should not miss a four-page feature on three generations of the Gantleys, or a two-page tribute to the hugely important contribution made by the late Frank Fahy, Hurling Board secretary and team mentor in the 1970s.
Edited by Séamus Finnerty, the 2021-2020 Galway GAA Annual is strongly recommended. It is priced at €10.
