Joe Canning My Story (Hardback)

Joe Canning is a five-time All-Star hurler. In 2017 he won a senior All- Ireland medal for Galway, defeating Waterford to bring the Liam MacCarthy Cup back across the Shannon for the first time in 29 years and earning the Hurler of the Year award. Joe won back-to-back minor All Irelands and an under-21 in 2007, the same year that he won a Fitzgibbon medal with Limerick IT. He also had a hugely successful club career with Portumna, winning four All-Irelands. He retired in July 2021 and now works in hospitality, enjoying his passion for golf in his spare time. He lives in Limerick with his wife Meg and daughter Josie. Joe continues to play for his club, Portumna, and he is a selector for Galway’s U-20s.

Vincent Hogan is an acclaimed sports biographer and an award-winning sports journalist who recently retired after a long career with the Irish Independent. Books he has ghostwritten include Paul McGrath’s Back from the Brink (British Sports Autobiography of the Year, William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year, and Boylesports Irish Sports Book of the Year 2006), Eddie O’Sullivan’s Never Die Wondering and the memoirs of the GAA’s Nicky English, Davy Fitzgerald, Henry Shefflin and Colm ‘the Gooch’ Cooper.

Joe Canning
My Story

The youngest of seven children from a renowned Portumna hurling family, Joe Canning was regarded as a prodigy from the moment he stepped onto the pitch as a boy. Could he really be as great as everyone said he was? The answer appeared to be yes when, aged just 19, he burst onto the national radar scoring 2–12 for Galway and very nearly winning the game for his team against Cork.

From that moment on, Canning’s form was never less than excellent but it would be another nine summers before he lifted the Liam MacCarthy Cup, the whole country becoming fixated on his quest: could Joe Canning be the greatest hurler never to win an All-Ireland medal?

In his highly anticipated memoir, Joe delves into the highs and lows of a remarkable career – the standards of excellence he at times felt chained to, the suffocation of trying to meet other people’s expectations, his parents’ battles with cancer and the perspective that brought as he strove for greatness. Joe also shares the joy at seeing his parents’ faces – the ones he did it all for – when that All-Ireland win finally did happen, and he talks about how he made peace with his decision to retire.