Memories are made of this - Royal County's sporting tradition celebrated in new Chronicle photobook

What’s your favourite sporting moment? For many Meath folk it might well be that iconic moment in the summer of 1991 when Kevin Foley did something unusual and exceptional - he made a rare foray forward from his defensive position to score one of the most extraordinary goals in the history of the GAA.

The goal was the end-product of a a sweeping, pitch-length move that went a long way to securing a last-gasp, truly dramatic, victory for the Royal County in their never-to-be forgotten, four-game Leinster SFC saga with Dublin. It was a moment when the nation really did hold its breath. Or maybe it was the moment in the 1999 when Ratoath jockey Paul Carberry guided Bobbyjo to victory in the most famous steeplechase in the world - the Aintree Grand National. Not only did Paul guide the horse to a wonderful victory on the famous course his father, Tommy was the trainer.
Both those wonderful, snapshots in time are featured in ‘Meath Life Through the Lens 2019 - Sport in the Royal County’, a pictorial record of sporting achievements and events featuring Meath people from the 1950s until 1999.
The publication was compiled by the sports editor of the Meath Chronicle, Conall Collier, who spent many hours sifting through an ocean of sporting photographs that recorded special moments from sporting events that featured Meath people. Events that unfolded both at home and abroad. 
“With more than 30 years at the Meath Chronicle sports, it was a challenge to tackle this assignment but the end product is the result of hours of trawling through files in an effort to get to the finishing line,” he said.
“There were gaps, photographs that exist, but couldn’t be found but it was still a challenge, particularly when it came to what to leave out, to deciding what didn’t make the cut.
“There are about 360 prints, 156 action-packed pages and apart from the GAA-themed photographs there are 23 other sports featured from soccer, rugby, motorsport and horseracing along with pitch and putt, golf, badmintion, tennis, greyhound racing and more.”
The end product is a book that will make a perfect Christmas stocking filler for anybody with even the remotest interest in Meath sport - and life. The photographs often capture the great joy as well as the pain that only sport can deliver. The highs and lows of a sporting life. 

Meath Life Through the Lens 2019 - Sport in the Royal County’ opens with a photograph that features a man anyone with even the remotest interest in Irish sport would know - the legendary Sean Boylan who guided Meath to four All-Ireland SFC titles.
From there you embark on a journey when you are given the opportunity to relive some of the great occasions from sport featuring people from the Royal County over the years; moments like Foley’s unforgettable goal or Bobbyjo's rousing Aintree win. Memories are made of this.