This could be one of the sporting must-haves this Christmas season.
Kieran Donaghy is one of those increasingly rare things in modern sport – a character. He is a man that takes defeats personally and never takes winning for granted.
Six Munster titles, four All Irelands, three league titles and three All Stars along with so many ifs, buts and maybes.
It looked, for a while, that Donaghy would burn brightly only to fade away. He has reinvented himself, however, and is comfortable in a role that often calls on him to be the hard-hitting impact sub. The difference maker.
Donaghy’s autobiography, What Do You Think Of That?, will be released in the coming weeks and, judging by its blurb, it promises to be a revealing, heartfelt read.
There will be stories about his basketball career, his frontline partnerships with Colm Cooper, Declan O’Sullivan and Paul Galvin, and his footballing resurrection. Much in the vein of Jim McGunness’ 2015 autobiography, though, the insights into a tough personal life are set to get most folk talking. The blurbs states:
‘[The country] doesn’t know about the huge upheaval he had at home during his childhood and of the roller-coaster relationship he had with his troubled father right up to the man’s tragic death. It doesn’t know that Kieran is dyslexic, a condition that led to many challenges throughout his childhood and adult life.
‘It doesn’t know just how close he came to falling by the sporting wayside until he was saved by a couple of American basketball figures that mentored him. It doesn’t know that the reason he has fought for everything on the field is because he had to fight for everything on and off it.’
We’ll be picking up a copy.
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