John Kelly, a graduate of the MA in Irish Regional History at Carlow College, has seen his book The GAA Covered reach number three on the Irish hardback non-fiction bestsellers list.
As part of his postgraduate studies, John researched the founding of the GAA in Carlow and Kilkenny for his thesis. Although the book isn’t a direct extension of his thesis, it reflects the same area of interest explored and utilised the skills learned during his postgraduate studies. “The course was extremely helpful in shaping the research and writing process”, says John.
The book brings together a wide selection of match programmes from All-Ireland and provincial finals, some dating back as far as the 1940s. John sourced many of these by travelling across Ireland and meeting with long-time collectors. He scanned and photographed over 850 programmes and wrote 25,000 words of commentary, which were then compiled and published by Gill Books.
The idea behind the book was to show what a complete collection of final programmes might look like. In some cases, it was difficult to confirm whether programmes even existed for certain years. John’s research helped fill in many of these gaps, and each year featured in the book includes a short explanation to give context.
The launch of The GAA Covered took place at Palatine GAA Club in early September and was well attended by collectors and GAA supporters from across the country. John has been collecting programmes since childhood, and this project allowed him to combine a personal interest with the skills he developed during his time at Carlow College.
