Finn McCool's Football Club

Finn McCool's Football Club - The Birth, Death and Resurrection of a Pub Soccer Team in the City of the Dead is the title of a nonfiction memoir book written by Belfast author Stephen Rea and released in February 2009 by Pelican Publishing Company.[1]

Plot

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The book's timeline stretches from 2004 to 2006, detailing Rea and his American wife's emigration from Northern Ireland to New Orleans and the difficulties they encounter in adapting to their new life. After he becomes a regular at Finn McCool's, an Irish pub in Mid-City, New Orleans, the book introduces the eccentric, international crowd that gathers there to watch European football games. Six months later they form a pub soccer team.

After seven months of training, the team are preparing to play competitively when Hurricane Katrina hits the city on August 29, 2005. The narrative follows the harrowing stories of players, patrons, and pub staff as they deal with the hurricane's disastrous ramifications.

Slowly they return to New Orleans, rebuilding their team, their pub, and their lives. The end of the book deals with life in the surreal landscape of immediate post-Katrina New Orleans, a city missing basic amenities like hospitals, schools, garbage pickup and traffic lights.

The book has received positive reviews both in the US and the UK and sold more than 2,000 copies in the first three months of release.[citation needed]

References

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  1. ^ McKee, Ross (28 September 2009). "Hurricane fails to beat Finn McCool's club". BBC News. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
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