THIS WEEK’S GUEST on Behind the Lines is Denis Walsh of the Irish Times. 

Behind the Lines is The 42′s sportswriting podcast, where host Gavin Cooney interviews sportswriters about their career and their favourite writing. For more information, and to gain instant access to a 100-plus episode back catalogue featuring some of the biggest names in sports journalism, click here.

Denis wrote one of the great GAA books, Hurling: The Revolution Years, on the sudden outbreak of democracy in hurling in the early 1990s.

He looks back on some of his favourite stories and characters of that time, and we discuss whether the sport truly made the most of a thrilling era.

We also discuss the present Limerick team: what makes them so special? And where do they rank among the all-time greats? We ponder the modern game, and ask whether hurling really was better in the Good Old Days.

Denis has written about many sports other than Gaelic games, such as golf and rugby. He ghost-wrote the autobiographies of Ronan O’Gara and Donncha O’Callaghan, and speaks about how he helped them to tell their stories.  

We also discuss Denis’ time among the galacticos of the Sunday Times, and days covering Munster rugby and the Irish soccer team.

We also chat about his start in the industry at the Sunday Tribune in the late 1980s and early ’90s, a time when the paper had a stacked roster of talented sports writers, but the GAA beat was not as busy as today. So we hear about Denis’ adventures covering tug of war championships, a croquet international and elite-level Subbuteo. 

Listen to the full interview with Denis Walsh by subscribing to The42 here.