Book description
Donncha O'Callaghan is one of Ireland's leading international rugby
players, and a stalwart of the Munster side. He was a key figure in
the Irish team which won the IRB 6 Nations Grand Slam in 2009, and has
won two Heineken Cup medals and two Magners League titles with
Munster.
But that success did not come easy. For such a well known player
with a larger-than-life reputation, his long battle to make a
breakthrough at the highest level is largely unknown. In this honest
and revealing autobiography, Donncha talks in detail about the
personal setbacks and disappointments at Munster and the
unconventional ways he dealt with the frustration of not making the
team for four of five years in his early 20s.
He had a parallel experience with Ireland where it took him nearly
six years to get from fringe squad member to established first choice
player. Here he talks candidly about how he brought discipline to his
game, and about his relationships with the coaches who had overlooked
him and the second row rivals who had kept him on the bench.
Donncha talks also with great warmth about a hectic childhood that
was shaped by the death of his father when he was only six years old.
One of the heroes of his story is his mother Marie who showed
incredible strength and resourcefulness to rear a family of five on
her own.
Often deservedly regarded as 'the joker in the pack', what is often
less well known is the serious attitude and intensely professional
approach Donncha brings to his rugby. Joking Apart gives the
full picture, showing sides of the man that will be unfamiliar to
followers of Irish rugby and will surprise the reader.
Donncha O'Callaghan was born in Cork in 1979. He began playing
rugby at Highfield Rugby Club before going on to play for the
Christian Brothers College, Cork, side which won the Munster Schools
Senior Cup in 1998. In the same year, he played on the Ireland U19
World Championship winning side which included other future stars like
Brian O'Driscoll and Paddy Wallace. First capped for Ireland in 2003,
he has played more than 80 times for Ireland, forming a formidable
second row partnership with Paul O'Connell. He has won both the
Heineken Cup and the Magners League twice with Munster and has been on
two tours with the British and Irish Lions, having the honour of
captaining the Lions against the Southern Kings in South Africa in
2009.
Donncha became a UNICEF Ireland Ambassador in 2009. He married his
long time girlfriend, Jenny Harte, in December 2009, and their first
child, Sophie, was born in July 2010.
