Paul McGrath's autobiography 'Back From The Brink' was discussed during today's Sunday Paper Review on Off The Ball.
Paul Kimmage of the Sunday Independent compares the public reaction to the stories of Paul McGrath - written by Vincent Hogan - and Cathal McCarron, in today's paper. Incidentally, Vincent Hogan was on the panel today and recalled the difficult process involved in exploring McGrath's troubled past when writing the book
Hogan explains:
"I remember doing that book and I'd hand Paul chapters and he'd sit down with me and he'd say, 'God I'm coming out of this very badly.' He was such a loved figure at the end of his playing career. I remember almost coming out in cold sweat one night and I was in the middle of the book (thinking about) my deconstructing of such an iconic figure. There's not much football in the book."
Hogan goes on to describe a pivotal moment that could have potentially prevented the book from being published at all.
"I'd say to him 'well is there any part of it that's not true or is there any part of it that's in any way exaggerated and he said no,' so I said 'well it's your call because if it's true, obviously it's your book, if you wanna pull the plug on it, you pull the plug on it. One of the things I'd said to him was 'it's access all areas Paul and you tell the truth.' I hadn't any idea of a fraction of the truth."
"It rolled back the stone and everything that was there to be dug out, was dug out and it meant that there was never going to be another story out about Paul that he didn't see coming."
Listen to the full discussion here:
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