Sports-mad Eoin Madden is home in Tipperary for the holidays. There’s no rugby over the summer, so he and his Castlerock boarding school friends, Dylan and Alan, head down to Ormondstown GAA club and get involved with the hurling and football teams.

The summer is full of fun as the boys all get into playing GAA — well, apart from Alan, who’s more into studying the opposition, and checking out the GAA stats. Eoin and Dylan take part in a hurling and football blitz against other clubs in the county and find some of the skills they’ve developed in rugby translate well to their native sports.

The lads also have a bit of fun setting up a gardening business with their new teammates Vladis and Isaac to make some money. Everything is going well, so Eoin isn’t sure why he bumps into his old ghostly friend, Brian Hanrahan — along with the ghost of Michael Hogan, who died in Croke Park on Bloody Sunday. Usually when ghosts appear to Eoin it is because there’s something brewing. Some mystery or danger!

The only thing going wrong in Ormondstown seems to be a bit of trouble with a gang of bullies. But Eoin and Dylan have handled the bullies — or have they?

The ghostly action really hots up when the friends go to Dublin for the All-Ireland Hurling final. Eoin gains a deeper understanding of the tragedy of Bloody Sunday 100 years ago. But will he be in time to stop a modern tragedy unfolding?

Book 7 in the acclaimed Rugby Spirit series.

Brwydr y Bêl