Philly McMahon’s ‘The Choice’ winner of Sports Book of Year

Philly McMahon’s heartfelt account of his life on and off the pitch, ‘The Choice’ written with Niall Kelly, has been named the winner of the eir sport Sports Book of the Year 2017. Philly picked up his prize at an awards ceremony held in Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin this afternoon.

‘The Choice’ traces Philly and his brother John’s paths, from his earliest recollections of their childhood through the maelstrom of Ballymun’s heroin epidemic. He considers the relationships, tensions, arguments and chance occurrences that pushed them in very different directions: Philly to university, the boardroom and the hallowed turf of Croke Park; John to exile in London, heartbreak and, ultimately, tragedy.

The raw, vivid and intensely moving autobiography is told in the structure of the first half, half time and second half discussing the choices that we all have in life and how Philly chose a path that his brother never got a chance to choose.

It took the prize ahead of what was strong competition. The final shortlist included; ‘The Ascent: Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and the Rise of Irish cycling’s golden generation’ with Barry Ryan; ‘The Warriors Code’ by Jackie Tyrell with Christy O’Connor and the overall winner ‘The Choice’ by Philly McMahon with Niall Kelly.

The winner of the eir sport Sports Book of the year will receive €1,500 with the winning book also set to receive €10,000 worth of TV advertising on eir sport. Philly McMahon also collected a specially commissioned trophy today in recognition of his achievement.

Ruth Hegarty of Publishing Ireland commented: “Ireland is recognised as a nation of great writers, so the competition was always going to be difficult. Philly’s autobiography carries you to the last page and I congratulate him for that. Gill Books have found a talent; I look forward to what sports books publishers will find in 2018.”

Glen Killane MD of eir TV and sport commented: “On behalf of eir sport I’d like to thank all the authors and publishers who put forward books for consideration, our judging panel and chairman for their diligent efforts to ensure the best books in 2017 were shortlisted and our friends in Publishing Ireland without whose help this awards scheme would not have been possible.”

A total of 22 books were submitted for the longlist for the eir sport Sports Book of the Year 2017 with this list eventually being whittled down to a three-book shortlist from which today’s winner was chosen.

This is the third year of the eir sport Sports Book of the Year. Previous winners include John Leonard’s renowned ‘Dub Sub Confidential’ and Kieran Donaghy’s ‘What Do You Think of That?’.

Judging Panel:

 The judging panel for the eir Sport Sports Book of the Year was independently chaired by Mark Duncan.