Finn McCool's Football Club
Encyclopedia
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
.
The bulk of the book's time-line stretches from 2004 until 2006. It humorously relates how Rea and his American wife emigrate from Northern Ireland
to New Orleans, and the difficulties they encounter in adapting to their new life. Soon he becomes a regular at Finn McCool's, an Irish pub in Mid-City, New Orleans, and the book introduces the eccentric, international crowd that gathers there to watch European football games. Six months later they form a pub soccer team.
Approximately halfway into the book the tone changes. After seven months of training the team are about to play competitively when Hurricane Katrina
slams into the city on August 29, 2005. The narrative follows the harrowing stories of players, drinkers and pub staff as they are plucked from roofs or forced to swim out of the city. Rea and his friends are scattered around the world.
Slowly they return to New Orleans and rebuild their team, their pub and their lives. The book's final chapters deal 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.
Pelican Publishing Company
Pelican Publishing Company is a book publisher based in Gretna, a suburb of New Orleans. It was formed in 1926 and in its time has produced 1500 titles, most of which relate to Louisiana and Southern culture, cuisine, and history...
.
The bulk of the book's time-line stretches from 2004 until 2006. It humorously relates how Rea and his American wife emigrate from Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
to New Orleans, and the difficulties they encounter in adapting to their new life. Soon he becomes a regular at Finn McCool's, an Irish pub in Mid-City, New Orleans, and the book introduces the eccentric, international crowd that gathers there to watch European football games. Six months later they form a pub soccer team.
Approximately halfway into the book the tone changes. After seven months of training the team are about to play competitively when Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
slams into the city on August 29, 2005. The narrative follows the harrowing stories of players, drinkers and pub staff as they are plucked from roofs or forced to swim out of the city. Rea and his friends are scattered around the world.
Slowly they return to New Orleans and rebuild their team, their pub and their lives. The book's final chapters deal 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.