The story of the Blues brought to book as St Finbarr's mark 150 years

If there is one ‘problem’ with Gallant Old Blues, the book celebrating the 150th anniversary of St Finbarr’s, it is that it is out of date before it ever goes on sale.

Co-authored by Mick Finn and Plunkett Carter, the considerable tome will be launched at a special event at the club’s headquarters at Neenan Park in Togher on Thursday, November 28.

It’s a nice complaint to have, but events have already overtaken it, as Finn outlines.

“I remember saying it at the first meeting,” he says, “that the minute we produced the book, it'd go out of date.

“Already, since it's got to print, we've won a senior county football, we've won a senior camogie, a minor B hurling, so already the next book will have to be contemplated!”

“Someone said, ‘Could we do a book every year?!’ Maybe that's what happens.”

A century and a half in existence - much of it characterised by success across the codes - obviously marked

“Obviously, we knew that the 150th was coming up and we kind of sat down and decided as a club a couple of things that we kind of had to do,” Finn says.

“One of them was to do a book, updating the history from Sean Beecher's one that was produced in the early-to-mid-1980s - a lot has happened since then.

“That was about maybe 18 months ago a I kind of decided that I'd step up and do it alongside Plunkett Carter, who's obviously well-known and contributes to the Examiner and The Echo.

“He's a very well-known sports historian and he's font of knowledge and he has lots of photos. I'd say there's no counting the hours he's put in and he’s a Barrs supporter all his life.

“Himself and myself ploughed on with the support of two other members, Donal Whooley and Donal Murray, who is the club president.

“We started putting a word out to the club for photos, material and so on. Then I started interviewing former players, mentors and administrators. That's how it started and it evolved over that then.”

A call for a hundred people to buy special hard-back editions at €100 each was over-subscribed - by almost double - while the paper-backs will be available to purchase at the launch.

The Lord Mayor of Cork, Togher native Cllr Fergal Dennehy, and An Taoiseach, Micheál Martin - a Nemo Rangers man - will be present on the night and those purchasing the book are likely to find much to interest and entertain.

“There's over 300 photographs in the book, which is a big change from the last one,” Finn says.

“There is a bit at the end giving a record of the various championship wins and All-Stars and the like but the book really is more about the people.

“We’ve just tried to capture the characters and some of the funny stories and then some of the historical stuff that we have - the affirmation of it being established back to 1876 with clippings and letters from the old papers. Then, it's also about the modern stars too, the likes of Jimmy [Barry-Murphy] and Charlie [McCarthy] and Gerald [McCarthy] and all those, all the way up to the likes of Gemma O’Connor and Ian Magure.

“We’ve tried to make it as broad a reflection of the activities of the club as possible.”