Hibs! A History of Cork Hibernians FC 1957-1976
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REVIEWS
HERE! HERE! The HIBS are Here!
HIBS!
A History of Cork Hibernians by Michael Russell.
Review by Cónal Creedon
It is said that if you can remember the 60's - well then you weren't there. BUT - if you can't remember Cork soccer in the 70's - well the you must have been on another planet.
Formative years for this boy. Ireland was a land of single channel TV - broadcasting for a short seven hours a day - and regularly interrupted by – 'Is Donagh Linn an Brisedh Seo. BBC was a far away place. Soccer was a foreign game - a barrack game. And the only access this boy had to real live soccer stars was down The Lodge - or out The Box of a Sunday afternoon.
In the days of Press Button A or Press Button B - long before the intrusion of i-phones or internet - breaking news was passed cheek by jowl - and word of an epic clash spread throughout the town like a virus. A regular salutation back then was - "Who won the match, lads?" and a full blow-by-blow report from the toss of the coin to the final whistle was expected and usually delivered.
Then - like Martin Luther in 1517 when he nailed his document to church doors in Wittenberg – every Sunday afternoon thumbtacked to the door of The Cork Examiner on Academy Street would be the latest results from around the country - and that's where Northsiders would gather on the way home to from The Lodge.
Last Tuesday evening I lucked into the launch of - Michael Russell's book - HIBS! A History of Cork Hibernians FC [Pub Onstream] - And like a mere mortal on Mount Olympus - I found myself in a room full of the Gods of my youth. Transported back to my prepubescent days with my hand pressed through the chicken wire at the players pavilion - I wandered, from one to the other, awe-struck and wide-eyed collecting autographs.
Do someone you love a favour this Christmas and buy this book.
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