'GAA Confidential' is a book that every GAA fan should have.

Put it on the dresser behind that sepia tinted photo of Grand Uncle Séamus and the Junior A team of 1947 ... or pack it every Sunda' with your flask of tay and foil wrapped hang sangwidges on your way to the big game.

Above all, read it.

'GAA Confidential' isn't your typical sports book: it's funny, breezy and ironic, a sort of bluffers' guide mixed with facts and miscellany, rants, satire and a lot of silliness. Kind of like 'Generation X meets Junior B'.

There's a little bit of everything thrown in there: essays and cartoons,quizzes and lists of stats, spoof versions of Oscar Wilde and Flann O'Brien, suggestions for Gaelic games movies, dissections of the best player beards, and the world's 'first ever tortured philosophical debate on GAA'.

Just like on our own 'Speak Out!' DB the chat tends to wander off on all sorts of tangents about anything at all, but has GAA at its core.

The author is a Tapperhairy Lad by the name of Darragh McManus. He's from a village called Emly in Tipp. Presumably called after some young wan named Emly. God forgive him, but doesn't he write for the 'Irish Independent' and 'Evening Herald' and he previously edited the late and lamented 'High Ball' magazine. Darragh played hurling and football up to minor,so he knows his GAH.

What his fellow scribes have written about Darragh's book
"Perhaps the funniest, most cultured book ever written about our national sports"
Irish Independent

"Brilliantly illustrated, witty and genuinely fascinating. GAA Confidential is an essential addition to the coffee table, and a must as the summer rolls in"
Evening Herald

"Flip, smart, ironic and breezy.by turns a miscellany, polemic, social history and work of satire. The sort of sports book one could imagine being read by almost anyone"
Sunday Business Post

"Casts a wry and amusing eye over every aspect of GAA.entertaining and diverting fare"
Sunday Tribune

"GAA Confidential is sure to be a massive hit.the ultimate alternative guide"
Sunday World

"Gathers together the sports' oddest trivia and facts"
The Sun

"A quirky, often hilarious, labour of love'
Belfast Telegraph

"A great read for the train journey"
Cavan Echo

"Stirring stuff"
Clare People

AFR has, so far, been unable to confirm that the first two comments were actually penned by His Serene Eminence, Sir Doktor AJF O'Reilly Himself, though they bear hallmarks of his remarkable style, albeit without the usual reference to the Lions rugby tour of South Africa in 1954. The 'Cavan Echo' comment is a daring one, since trains have neither run in nor out of Ceavan in many a long year. Maybe the memory lingers on? And the 'Clare People' ... surely the homeland of 'Stirring Stuff' in GAAland.

Buy a copy online here