Shortlist spot would be a "dream come true" for Tom

Although he"s yet to make the shortlist, being named among the preliminary entrants for the 2008 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award has already got Mullingar man Tom Hunt rubbing his hands together with delight.To Irish sports writers, winning such a prestigious award would be like training the winner for the Cheltenham Gold Cup, and the fact that he made the 'long list' of 23 candidates is an honour for the Waterford-born teacher.'Making the short list has always been an ambition of mine, but the fact that I"m even being considered is an honour,' Tom told the Westmeath Examiner this week.Tom, a doctor of history with a PhD from De Montfort University, Leicester, England, released an extended and tweaked edition of his thesis in book form, published by Cork University Press, entitled "Sport and Society in Victorian Ireland: The Case of Westmeath".The book, widely held to be a groundbreaking study of the social history of sport in Ireland in the 19th and early 20th centuries, received rave reviews when it hit the shelves in February of this year.Of particular interest to reviewers was the book"s chapter on cricket in Victorian Westmeath, an unlikely sport which in those days, transcended class boundaries to become a popular pastime in the county.While the reviews have been steadily positive, this is the first award for which "Sport and Society" has been listed as a runner, and if it manages to make the shortlist, Tom will feel all the better for the hard work he put into his tome.'You could call it a five year work, three years for the thesis itself, and then another two years converting it into book form,' said the Mullingar Community College teacher. 'Most of that work was done in the County Library in Mullingar, looking at local newspapers and census figures.'Academic treatments of sport are a rarity, so "Sport and Society" will be a unique feature on a long list of standard sports biographies and autobiographies.In his treatment of sport in Victorian Westmeath, Tom tried his best to stick to the subject at hand, without going off in other tangents. 'When you"re doing a study of the history of something like the GAA for instance, it"s impossible not to get into politics. But I tried to veer away from that altogether.'Tom"s main academic influences are his former local history tutor at NUI Maynooth, Professor Ray Gillespie, and his PhD tutor Dr. Mike Cronin, who is currently heading up a GAA oral history project at Boston College"s outreach facility in Dublin.He also highlights Canadian historian Peter Hart, who wrote a controversial study of IRA violence in Cork during the War of Independence, as one of his major historiographical influences.At the moment, Tom is working on a Westmeath-focused research article, which will be published in a forthcoming book marking the 125th anniversary of the founding of the GAA.The winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year will be announced in early December, and members of the public are entitled to vote for their choice. If you would like to support Tom, cast your vote at www.irishsportsbookoftheyear.com.