Book Award: Heart and Soul, the autobiography of former Irish rugby international Trevor Brennan, has won this year's William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year Award.
The book was written with the assistance of Irish Times rugby correspondent Gerry Thornley and depicts Brennan from his time growing up in Leixlip and playing for Barnhall through to his time at Toulouse where he won two European Cups before his eventual five-year ban from rugby following a serious altercation with an Ulster fan during a game.
The book was up against strong competition from the shortlist, including autobiographies by Armagh GAA star Oisin McConville and former Kerry manager Jack O'Connor. Raiders of the Caribbean, which looked at the remarkable journey of the Irish cricket team to this year's World Cup, Kings of September by Mick Foley and Brendan Fanning's From There To Here also made the top six for this year's award.
"It was a great competition this year," said Tony Kenny from William Hill. "The standard of books that made the long list was excellent and the quality of the shortlist made it really tough for the judges."
"This was a great example of the high standard of sports writing that exists in the country. However, we have a worthy winner in Trevor and Gerry's book and a great selection as the William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year for 2007.
Today's announcement was made at Eason's Bookstore on Dawson Street, Dublin and follows last year's inaugural winner Back From the Brink by Paul McGrath with Irish Independentjournalist Vincent Hogan.
The award was judged by a panel of Ireland's best sporting commentators including, George Hook, Eamon Dunphy and Hogan.
The Irish public were awarded one vote via the Irishsportsbookoftheyear.com website, which recorded over 1000 votes. The Irish public also voted Heart and Soulas their William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year, followed by Keys to the Kingdom by Jack O'Connor and From There to Here by Brendan Fanning.
William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year - Judging Panel
Paul Collins -
Today
FM
Will Downing -
INN
George Hook -
RTEand
Newstalk
Eamon Dunphy -
RTE
Kieran Holden -
TV3
Robbie Irwin -
RTE
Deric Henderson -
Press Association
Vincent Hogan -
Irish Independent
Jerry O'Sullivan -
Newstalk
Adrian Logan -
UTV