From the late 1960s, Northern Ireland has been mired in violence. Yet it has had seen more than its fair share of sporting heroes - from footballer George Best, through snooker champion Alex Higgins, to boxer Barry McGuigan. Life was tough for these working-class lads, but they could shine on the football field or find refuge at the town boxing club.
For other kids, like the young Teddy Jamieson, a knockabout in the back-lanes was as good as it got, but at least they had their heroes. Watching McGuigan on telly, Teddy could feel proud to be Northern Irish. But sport - like everything else in Northern Ireland - could quickly turn nasty when politics were involved.
This extraordinary journey through sport and the Troubles has it all: from Olympic gold-medals to Gaelic football; from death threats to reconciliations. Then there is Teddy's own story, as we learn how the age-old playground question 'Whose side are you on?' doesn't always have an easy answer.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
This book positively sparkles with intelligence, humanity and, most importantly, real hope for the future. * Metro * As well as being an account of how sport fared during the Troubles, Whose Side Are You On? traces Jamieson's wildly ambivalent relationship with the country of his birth...It's certainly a rich stew, and no one could accuse him of not doing his research - he's interviewed all the key personnel, except, for obvious reasons, Best and Higgins. * Daily Mail *
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ISBN-13
978-1-4090-2889-5 (9781409028895)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Teddy Jamieson is a writer for The Herald and Sunday Herald newspapers in Glasgow. His only sporting claim to fame is that he played in a championship winning five-a-side team at Stirling University. That was, though, quite a long time ago. This is his first book.
