The Bloodied Field: Croke Park. Sunday 21 November 1920 - Softcover

truly brilliant -- Balls.ie brilliant -- Second Captains thanks to ... The Bloodied Field ... we now have a much more vivid and greater understanding of the frightening events that happened -- Irish Examiner rarely has a sports book told you more about and Ireland at one moment in time ... probably the most exhaustively and best researched mainstream Irish sports book ever, yet reads like the best of historical novels -- Irish Examiner the book of the year in terms of sports books .... so well-written ... he takes you there ... I can't imagine too many better non-fiction books have been released this year in any genre -- TV3's Ireland AM the best ... a sports book, a history book, a thriller ... the writing is a treat ... Foley weaves every strand together with an expert hand for a book that makes everything else look unambitious -- Irish Times I couldn't put it down ... a fabulous piece of work ... read like a thriller ... he builds the suspense superbly ... a testament to the brilliance of Michael Foley, one of our best sportswriters ... you can tell from the opening page he has absolutely nailed this book -- RTE1's Sean O'Rourke Show Among the sports writing fraternity of the GAA, a healthy competition began rousing itself around 15 years ago, leading to over a decade of left-field 'concept' books and superb documenting of Gaelic Games. The trickle-down effect has emboldened many writers willing to experiment on their work. Each Christmas, Gaelic Games has a glut of sports books produced. For an indigenous sport and an amateur one at that, it is possibly even over-subscribed with capable authors. The high-water mark this Christmas, and for a few more, might just be reached by the release of Michael Foley's 'The Bloodied Field'... This is a rich book. It has soul and a beating heart and it stands alone as an astonishing, affecting piece of work. If you are in the habit of visiting Croke Park, you will never look at it again with the same eyes. Only greatness can achieve that effect. And this book is great -- Belfast Telegraph the definitive account of Bloody Sunday 1920 ... amazing ... phenomenally well put together ... one of the best books that I've read in a long time -- The Last Word with Matt Cooper incredible -- campus.ie A stunning read. Builds the suspense superbly during the day with personal accounts of all the main protagonists involved on Bloody Sunday and its aftermath. Michael Foley has done not just the GAA, but the country, a service in putting this book together. It is a film waiting to happen. Historical research of this nature could have been heavy and lost the interest of the reader quickly, but he takes his painstaking research and turns it into a gripping thriller. Just brilliant. -- thescore.ie far and away, my book of the year .... this is one of those books that transcends sports ... brilliant ... the book of the year -- RTE Sport/RTE Radio's Damien O'Meara a must read for all history and sporting folk -- Clare County Express reading it at the moment ... and I think it's a fantastic piece of work -- Sunday Independent Irish sport book of the year in my mind -- RTE Sport's Damien O'Meara for those of you who might think this is a history book, think again ... a very interesting read -- Dungarvan Leader one of the best Irish sports books of the year -- Gorey Guardian already now an Irish classic -- Irish Examiner a must read for both GAA and Irish history buffs ... Foley's book is one that will be read for years to come, by both sports fans and history scholars' -- Mayo Advertiser outstanding -- Sunday Independent Sport Cork-born author Michael Foley appears to have mastered a particular genre of GAA book writing which requires considerable ability and attention to detail in order to be a success ... [he] has set a high standard that anyone else who dares to venture down this tricky path will find difficult to emulate -- Enniscorthy Guardian, New Ross Standard reads like a thriller -- Wexford People well-researched and enormously readable book -- History Ireland the critically acclaimed The Bloodied Field ... A familiar story told as never before. -- Irish Independent one of the stand-out books last year -- Newstalk's Off the Ball Michael Foley's extraordinary book ... highly recommended -- Tipperary Star

On the morning of November 21 1920, Jane Boyle walked to Sunday Mass in the church where she would be married five days later. That afternoon she went with her fiancée to watch Tipperary and Dublin play a gaelic football match at Croke Park. Across the city nine men lay dead in their beds after a synchronised IRA attack designed to cripple British intelligence services in Ireland. Trucks of police and military rumbled through the city streets as hundreds of people clamoured at the metal gates of Dublin Castle seeking refuge. Some of them were headed for Croke Park.

Award-winning journalist and author Michael Foley recounts the extraordinary story of Bloody Sunday in Croke Park and the 90 seconds of shooting that changed Irish history forever. In a deeply intimate portrait he tells for the first time the stories of those killed, the police and military that were in Croke Park that day, and the families left shattered in its aftermath, all against the backdrop of a fierce conflict that stretched from the streets of Dublin and the hedgerows of Tipperary to the halls of Westminster.