Until Victory Always

Book excerpt: 'There's a difference between living and being alive.'Jim McGuinness inherited a wounded thing when he took over as manager of the Donegal senior football team in the summer of 2010. When he stepped down just over four years later, the same group of players had won three Ulster championships, the All-Ireland title of 2012 and succeeded in overturning a century-old perception of how Gaelic football should be played.His departure also marked the end of a personal odyssey, which had begun almost three decades earlier and weathered the aftermath of two family tragedies. Destined to become a classic, Until Victory Always is McGuinness's unforgettable and highly personal account of his years at the helm of the Donegal team.Confessional, moving, funny and fiercely honest, it's at once the epic story of one team's audacious bid to rewrite its destiny and one man's moving testament to the power of sport to sustain us in our darkest moments.