Granted the Olympics are on, and an Irish boxer has failed a doping test, and the hurling championships has belatedly caught fire, and the Premier League is back, and Paul Pogba is finally going back to United, but we feel it is important to briefly interrupt all of this Serious Sports News to bring you some breaking news.
It concerns the hitherto unknown literary career of former Irish rugby prop John Hayes.
Amazon sell a book entitled Bright Midnight: A Novel, authored by one John Hayes. Here are excerpts from the description of the novel:
Bright Midnight is the story of rock star Jim Harrison, front man for the edgy, lyrical Los Angeles psychedelic rock band, The Changelings. Jim narrates the groups' phenomenal rise to success during the Sixties. Although he becomes famous, Jim is torn by his ambition to become a poet rather than a rock vocalist idolized as a sex star. As his girlfriend becomes addicted to hard drugs, he develops other intimacies and wrestles with his own tendencies towards self-destruction through drinking...
This narrative will be especially attractive to those who grew up in the 1960's listening to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, Pink Floyd, and Bob Dylan-all groups which defined a whole generations' values and life expectations.
It is essentially a fictional exploration of the life of Jim Morrison (rather than George Harrison).
While you may assume that such a novel is incongruous with the Bull Hayes whom we know and love so dearly, we would like to direct your attention to the 'About the Author' section on Wikipedia:
About the Author
John Hayes was born in Cappamore, Co. Limerick in 1973. He joined Bruff Rugby Club at the age of 18 and after learning his trade as a prop at Shannon and Munster, made his first international appearance in February 2000 against Scotland. Hayes went on to have a record-making career for Munster and Ireland.He is the most capped Irish forward of all time and 12th most capped player in the world. He has also played over 200 games for Munster, winning the Heineken Cup with them twice in 2006 and 2008. Hayes has been on two Lions tours and he won the Six Nations Grand slam with Ireland in 2009.
Mr. Hayes has an MFA in drama and a BA in literature. His plays have been staged at community and university theaters in Arizona, California, Missouri, and Australia. This is his first novel.
"Whenever I put music on I generally get booed out of it because I always put on 80s music," he said, citing Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi and Dire Straits as among his favourite artists."I laugh because Used to slag [John] Hayes about the same thing. He would have been on a lot of the same stuff and even older. I never thought I'd be that guy, but now I am that guy being slagged."
