‘THE CHOICE’ — THE autobiography of Dublin footballer Philly McMahon — has been named winner of the Bord Gais Energy Sports Book of the Year at a ceremony in Dublin tonight.
Written with sports journalist Niall Kelly, Deputy Editor of The42, the book focuses on McMahon’s childhood growing up in Ballymun to his development into a GAA star who was part of the Dublin side’s historic three All-Ireland triumphs in succession recently.
The book overcame stiff competition from five other nominees — ‘Any Given Saturday’ by Shay Given, ‘The Warriors Code’ by Jackie Tyrell with Christy O’Connor, ‘The Ascent: Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and the Rise of Irish cycling’s golden generation’ by Barry Ryan, ‘Gooch: The Autobiography’ by Colm Cooper with Vincent Hogan and ‘Form: My autobiography’ by Kieren Fallon with Oliver Holt.
Congratulations to ‘The Choice’ By Philly McMahon with Niall Kelly, WINNER of the @BordGaisEnergy Sports Book of the Year 2017 #BGEIBA @PhillyMcMahon @Gill_Books @niallkelly pic.twitter.com/jssLJW9ixp
— BGEIrish Book Awards (@BGEIBAS) November 28, 2017
Previous winners of the award include ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ by David Walsh, ‘The Test’ by Brian O’Driscoll and ‘Until Victory Always: A Memoir’ by Jim McGuinness.
According to the awards’ official site, the winners are “decided by an online web-poll divided into two constituencies, a public vote and a specialist Academy vote, weighted equally and combined to produce the winners”.
The42 has just published its first book, Behind The Lines, a collection of some of the year’s best sports stories. Pick up your copy in Eason’s, or order it here today (€10):
