The launch of Tony O'Donoghue's wonderful book of Irish Championship Athletics 1873-1914 was recently done by Olympic 1500 metres champion Ronnie Delany. The book, generously sponsored by Allianz Ireland, is truly an astonishing piece of painstaking research and of huge historical significance. The book incorporates all the GAA and IAAA championships for the period and in addition covers the Ireland v Scotland internationals and cross country championships. For anyone with a serious interest in the history of our sport this book is essential. Tony is of course best known for his athletics commentaries for RTE. Tony is also a senior member of the Association of Track and Field Statisticians (ATFS ) and produced the first ever Irish all-time track and field list in 1962. On a personal note without that work my own updating of the all-time list in the eighties would have been an almost impossible task. Tony's book is available in Eason's and other bookshops priced 19.99 euro or contact Tony direct at tonyod2@hotmail.com Liam Hennessy