Book tells how Mick Carty recalls local sports

By Dan Walsh

Rathangan Bar was packed on Friday night for the launch of a new sports biography named ‘Sportsman Mick; A Lifetime in Local Sports” by local man Mick Carty that gives an intriguing insight into the often exciting and controversial world of local GAA, soccer, pool and skittles.

“Everything I’ve written about is the truth as I recall it,” said Mick who commenced writing during Covid 19 lockdown, and he declared; “Some people won’t like it and I suppose that’s the nature of sport, it brings people together but can also prove very divisive at certain times. 

“I’ve been involved with several GAA and soccer clubs in South Wexford, and in pool and skittles for the past forty years. Some people think that these games are just past times, but they’re wrong. We take it very serious and sometimes we can fall out,” concluded Mick whose launch was held in “the front row before the home crowd.”

Speaking at the launch, local Cllr Jim Codd paraphrased Patrick Kavanaghs poem ‘Epic’, stating that “Homer made the Iliad from local feuds such as these” and what Mick Carty has done in this book is like what great men like PJ McCall and Dick Lambert done before him, the chronicling of our local area, customs and characters. It’s great to see larger than life members of our community who have passed on, like Frank Jordan, being recorded here. I’m sure that fifty years from now, elderly men and women will gather around battered old copies of this book and say, God, remember all those characters and those times.”

This is the 39^th publication by Red Books Press, the publishing arm of Red Books in Wexford’s St Peter’s Square and owner Wally O’Neill said that he was proud to be able to publish a book from his longtime friend Mick Carty.

“There are probably Mick Carty’s in every parish in Ireland, people who sacrifice all for the love of their sports, so this book has a universal appeal. I’ve known Mick for over twenty years and one thing that has never changed in that time is his unwavering enthusiasm and energy for sports,” concluded Wally.

Local musical personality John Wickham, who acted as MC for the launch, praised Mick as a man who might fall out with you, but who never carried that ill-will off the pitch or out of a meeting. He said that he had been there at many of the events that Mick had written about. Everything must start somewhere, and this book gives a rare peak into how much of what we now take for granted was won and established in this parish.”

“Sportsman Mick: A Lifetime in Local Sports” can be purchased now at Red Books in St Peters Square, Wexford, local shops in the Rathangan area, and at www.theirishbookshop.com.