THE book Unbeatable by Tom Looney, about the extraordinary life of Father Tom Jones — handball maestro, all-round sportsman, musician and priest — has just been published.
When it was officially launched in Croke Park recently, it was described as the most significant book on Irish handball in more than four decades.
Its subject, Father Tom Jones, remains the most formidable figure the sport has ever produced: a man whose dominance on the handball court was matched only by his willingness to walk away from it.
Born in Tralee, Co. Kerry in December 1868, Jones emerged as a handball phenomenon while still a teenager.
By the age of 18 he had beaten all challengers to become champion of Ireland, winning purses of up to £400, an extraordinary sum in the late 19th century.
Yet at the height of his fame, Jones made a decision that baffled contemporaries…
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