Sports Books 2005: This has been a busy year for Gaelic games-related publishing. The success of Liam Dunne's autobiography at the end of 2004 appears to have set a trend for confessional memoirs, of which there have been three notable recent examples.

Dessie Farrell's Dessie (with Seán Potts, Town House, €16.99) was the earliest and the highest-profile and made the short list for "sports book of the year".

Farrell is one of the most influential modern players, more because of his involvement in the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) than on account of a frustrating career that hit the high points but was disrupted by injury and the decline of Dublin for much of his later career.

It has been an eventful life to date, and all the rows and disagreements, principally with John Bailey and Tommy Lyons, are set out in visceral detail - to an extent that is too grudging about the latter's achievement in winning the 2002 Leinster title. Then again, you expect subjectivity in these accounts.

As a narrative it clips along and is a story worth hearing. One quibble would be that the voice is at times stilted and struggles to make emotional impact.

But overall it sheds light on the turbulent life and times of an important personality within the modern GAA.

There's no mistaking the voice in Davy Fitzgerald's Passion and Pride (with Jackie Cahill, Blackwater, €14.99). It is very much that of the intensely animated Clare goalkeeper. At times you have to smile.

Scrapes and controversies are met by belligerent assertion and little by way of persuasive argument, but these are in a way redeemed by an irrepressibly guileless spirit.

There is, for instance, a whole chapter reviewing his experiences at the hands of All Star selectors, the flavour of which is adequately captured by a chapter heading, "The Lost All Stars". He slags off the GPA for not serving players' interests and cites campaigning against "harsh suspensions" as territory the players' union could usefully explore.

The GPA stands further accused that it "only looks after an elite group of players" and offers "few benefits to average intercounty players". Then, without irony, he details how he - one of the game's most recognisable elites - concluded an individual deal with Umbro.

"How's that for product placement?" he beams - though the cover of the book shows him wearing an Azzurri shirt.

But for all the contradictions, Fitzgerald is an interesting character, obsessive about hurling and dedicated to the game. His outsize personality and personal difficulties have marked him out for cruel abuse from opposing supporters, a trend that is just about the most despicable aspect of crowd behaviour and one that gets little enough attention.

Fitzgerald comes across as a warm individual when he delves into his troubled private life. Like Farrell's, his marriage hasn't lasted, but the references to his young son are genuinely affecting, as is the uncomprehending sadness of how he and his wife rapidly realised their whirlwind union wasn't going to work out.

Elsewhere he flies back after a day on holiday to attend the funeral of a child with spina bifida, whom he had befriended when she asked to meet him at a training session and whom he used visit before every championship match.

His long-time mentor, Trixie Twomey, also passes away, and the consequent sense of loss surfaces regularly.

Fitzgerald's is a life lived intensely, its complications and flaws illuminated by an almost phosphorescent love of hurling. This book captures the lot.

Charlie Carter doesn't appear to have the same demons as Farrell and Fitzgerald. But an ostensibly pleasant life and nice family haven't helped him get over the seismic clash with Kilkenny manager Brian Cody, which led to Carter's abrupt retirement in 2003.

Triumph and Troubles (with Enda McEvoy, Blackwater, €14.99) inevitably hinges on that conflict, but even those who sympathised with Carter would accept Cody won the argument when Kilkenny captured the subsequent All-Ireland.

Otherwise this is an engaging, well-written insider account of Kilkenny hurling over 15 or so years.

The other trend in this year's GAA books is the big, pictorial history. An Illustrated History of the GAA (Eoghan Corry, Gill & McMillan, €29.99) is the latest from the prolific Corry, who has made a sizeable contribution to the written history of the games, particularly football. This is a more general work, with some of the iconic images of more than a century's activity. Nicely presented and very readable, it is also the only one of the six books here to have an index. Would other publishers please copy?

Journalist Ronnie Bellew had the clever idea of rounding up the major developments in Gaelic games over the past 15 years. GAA - The Glory Years, Hurling and Football 1991-2005 (Hodder Headline Ireland, €24.99) delivers lavishly on its target subject with intelligent text and striking pictures.

The quirkiest of the lot is All-Ireland Glory - A Pictorial History of the Senior Football Championship 1887-2005 by Frank Burke and Michael O'Donoghue (Frank Burke, €45), a companion piece to the hurling equivalent by the same publisher. It simply runs chronologically through the years, providing straight narrative text and an array of interesting and often unfamiliar photographs.

Burke has done trojan work of historical value both in print and video over the years. This is well up to that standard.

Two final gripes: all three of the pictorial books could have done with better copy editing to eliminate mistakes, which are both irritating and unfair to what are very worthwhile projects. And the "McCarthy Cup" is the MacCarthy Cup, as the eponymous donor's headstone will confirm.