'A Place to Play' captures the essence of the GAA

Cork Park stood in Ballintemple first, servicing athletics, horse racing, rugby, the local gun and automobile club throughout the late 1890s. Within a decade it was hosting All-Ireland finals. Between 1934 and 1935 its infrastructure was overhauled. Kelleher charts it all.

A Place to play: Book cover Humphrey Keleher

IRA member, Cork County board secretary and eventual General Secretary of the GAA Pádraig Ó Caoimh sits alongside an awesome aerial view of Cork Athletic Grounds from 1933 and a sideview of the same field after it had fallen into disrepair just under 30 years later. History captured in two pages.

The Páirc Uí Chaoimh section comes in the middle of Humphrey Kelleher’s new book, A Place to Play.