A Season of Sundays like never before

By Frank Craig

Frank Craig: The new ‘A Season of Sundays’, again, some brilliant moments are captured. And it’s not just on the field of play. The peripheral presence of the pandemic and those restrictions are all in there.

Ray McManus: At the time, when the championship proper was due to start, we actually went out, over the course of the entire weekend, and purposely visited all the grounds where the big games were supposed to be throwing in.

The first match was due to be played on May 9. Laois were to be hosting Galway in the Leinster SHC. In O’Moore Park, there is a block of apartments that overlook the ground. There was a couple there (Brian and Róisín Stapleton), who generously allowed us into their apartment, their home.

On P62 of the book, we have them sitting in their living room, watching the television, and an empty ground in the background. Another of the lads went to Waterford and I went to Thurles, the same weekend. Tipp’ were due to play Clare.

I photographed the groundsman, Dave Hanley, underneath the stands, in his little hut getting ready to go out and tend to the grass.

Matt Browne was down in Waterford, Walsh Park, and he’s got a little three-year-old kid smashing the sliotar up against the shut turnstiles. We did go out of the way to get those images.

Because at the time we really didn’t know if we’d get out to another match for the rest of the year. But it turned out that we did. And we got out to club matches first.

And what seemed normal, wasn’t in fact the norm. There is a picture there of Kilcar. A lad went up to the top of the hill there and there are a whole load of sheep grazing.

And there are lads from both the Killybegs and Kilcar clubs playing a match right below them. And rather than just going out to get a photograph of two lads kicking a ball, we consciously decided to take photographs of the countryside and the different circumstances in each location.

On the next page, up in Armagh, there are people up on a bridge, on a public road, taking the action in. No-one was allowed in at the time so people were peeping in from all sorts of vantage points. We’d be looking out for action surely but we were also looking out for the more unusual things as well.

The cover picture, the Limerick guy, even with the fatigue he’s suffering, he’s still elated. But if you look further, the umpire appears to be taking off his face mask. The Waterford players on the right are dejected. And in the very background there isn’t a sinner in Croke Park. And if you dig really deep, the second lad from the left is one of the main groundsmen in Croke Park. And he’s already thinking about getting the pitch back in order. So some things never change! His attitude is ‘the gig is over, now more on!’

FC: With the recent news that Gaelic games won’t be getting back under way next month, these are worrying times for anyone who relies exclusively on sport to earn a crust.

RMcM: They are extremely difficult times. But there are people who are far worse off. There are people that have either lost their life or are currently fighting for it. And there but for the grace of God go I.

For that reason, I’d say we shouldn’t whinge too much. We just have to carry on – keep her lit as they’d say.

FC: Sportsfile, when you got the business up and running back in the early ‘80s could you have ever envisaged what it would become?

RMcM: I’d like to think… the name Sportsfile has been around now for the past 40 years. And in itself it has built up a reasonable reputation. It’s funny, I’m not the sort of person that harbours or listens to much of that talk.

But when the younger staff here say it’s a great achievement to have so many people here working and to be able to dedicate it to sport alone; I’d be proud of the work they do and I’d be proud of the staff. But I wouldn’t be proud of the fact that I started Sportsfile. I don’t look on it like many do. I just consider it my job. That’s it.

FC: I’ve seen you around the grounds over the years, so many of the legends of the game have a ‘how’s things Ray?’ for you. They all know you. I think they appreciate your work.

RMcM: A lot of players would know me. I’m around a long time! But that’s how I’d judge them, how I’d judge anyone. The fella that says ‘how’s things, Ray?’ when he’s running out. Fair play to him or her. You know what I mean? I wouldn’t be one for getting in the way either.

I’d consider it a privilege to be there. Guys that ring me looking for something, a photograph or whatever; they’d get it right away. In turn, and it wouldn’t be often, it’s very, very seldom; but if I wanted something they’re all usually be very obliging.

Anyone I’ve ever talked to, they know it’s one hundred percent off the record.

Recently, and I put a note to it on Twitter when Michael Darragh MacAuley announced his retirement, If I’d been a writing journalist instead of a photo one, I’d have had that scoop the next morning. He was coming down with the Sam Maguire and I shouted to him that I’d take a picture. I did it for them all. But he said to me that he thought it’d be the last time he’d be up there. And I knew what he meant. But I wasn’t going to be telling anyone about that. I just let him carry on.

But all the lads, I’d know a lot of them. The likes of Aidan O’Shea as well, what a gentlemen. He features in the book. And again, it sums up the difference in winning and losing. He was unfortunate to have lost. It’s after the fact. Some interpreted that as Aidan leaving as Cluxton lifted the cup. He didn’t.

For clarity, all the Mayo lads stayed on the pitch for the presentations. And they then made their way off in a very respectable fashion. That was about number 19 or 20 at that stage. It was well down the line.

FC: But they’re your pictures they look for – the ones of the big moments. Those are the ones that hang on the walls of their houses.

RMcM: I wouldn’t necessarily have known that. But I work on the principle that if there was no players there would be no Ray.

FC: It doesn’t matter how good the report or copy is though, without the right photographs beside it, they have the potential to bring the coverage to another level.

RMcM: Could you send that to me in writing?! You’re the first journalist I’ve ever heard say that! I’ve always enjoyed the craic with the writers. But you are right, we didn’t invent the slogan but in many cases a picture often does paint a thousand words. In fairness to writers, we often refer to them as putting big and extended captions to our photographs! But it’s all good fun and a bit of a laugh.

FC: You can have all the qualifications in the world but instinct and passion, you can see if it’s there or not in a photograph.

RMcM: I haven’t a single qualification to my name. And it’s not how I judge anyone coming to Sportsfile to look for a job or an interview. I usually ask to see the last set of photographs they’ve taken. I want to see every single one. I always say, ‘I want to see how bad you are, not how good you are’.

If you’re doing a portfolio, you might have this great one and that great one. But it’s a bit like flying, only 10 percent of the seats are upper class. I work on the principle that I’m with the other 90 percent. I’ve never pretended to be something I wasn’t. People ask why I want to know how bad someone is.

Well, if you’re totally rubbish, then I don’t want you. But if you’re average, if you have potential, then I can work with that. If you’ve promise, like a football manager, I’ll give you a run. Everyone deserves a chance.

FC: The internet has made all our lives a little more convenient. In your line of work, it’s a godsend in so many ways. But do you miss the hustle and bustle or even the romance of the old days and old ways?

RMM: No, not really. I don’t call anything the old days. But once upon a time we did used to have film and we did have to go back to develop it, print them up and send them off. Now, if the match starts at 3pm, they want the action pics at 2.30pm. It’s go, go, go. In many ways it is progress, and in some ways it’s so much more demanding. There was a time when you guys would have finished a match, prepared copy and it was then in the next week’s paper. Now, they want it on the whistle. It’s the same with photographs.

Is it progress? It probably is. But at the same time it’s very demanding. You mentioned romance, but I never seen any romance in trying to develop film.

The advent of digital was great. I remember once, I didn’t know much about developing or printing at the time, but a colleague at the time, the late Jim O’Kelly, was magic at it. He was class.

He was as good at developing it as I was at selling it. I was basically an unemployed salesman. But we were both photographers.

I remember a fella asking me one time to do a presentation pic and get a few copies. I went up to the office and instead of developing the film in developer, I developed it in picture. Photographers will know what I mean but it was supposed to be develop, wash, fix and wash. They were the four steps. But myself, being the eejit I was, got steps one and three in the wrong order. And that meant when I pulled the film out of the tank there .was nothing on it. Pure blank. So I left my career in printing and developing behind me at that stage. I got into digital right away.

But digital, like I said, adds a different type of pressure.

FC: Ulster GAA – you were there for the early ‘90s breakthroughs by the likes of Derry and Donegal. Down were flying as well. You would have been present when Armagh, Tyrone and Donegal again all lifted Sam. Anything in particular stand out from those times?

RMcM: Do other sides still play in that championship?

Ah, listen, I’m the worst for dates and years. But of course, I mean when you see sides winning, and for a lot of those sides it was a first, so of course it brings a smile to your face. They were ferocious matches. That’s what I remember.

It’s been a bit of a mad time lately for the Dubs. It’s most unusual. People are saying that the Dubs are now winning it handy enough. But being on the sideline, there didn’t seem anything handy about it. But they’re a bit like a horse in the Curragh, two furlongs to go and you don’t know if they’re going to get the nose in front. But the next thing, the jockey cracks the whip.

There is only one time you need to be in front and that’s the final whistle.

FC: 2021 – we’re in for another behind closed doors championship. That’s if it gets going at all. These are worrying times…

RMM: Listen, it’s an inconvenience for the likes of us. But it’s life and death for so many others.

I watched a show the other night and some of the hard luck stories, it’s just so, so sad. There was a husband and wife, the two coffins were in the back of the one hearse. We’ve it handy when you see the like of that. I wouldn’t be giving out too much. It’s hard on the ones sick and that are unwell. I’d love to get back out and be sitting on a freezing field again.

It would be great. What would you give for a McKenna Cup first-rounder now? And the book documents the entire season. There are ordinary Joes in January looking to make their mark, catch the eye. And it really progresses from that, the empty fields to Croke Park and the All-Ireland finals.

There is a tradition. And I know you’ll not like me saying it but it usually ends up with Cluxton lifting Sam! I’ve relations up there in Donegal and I like to get them going, but I’ve always found those matches in January, February and March… they’re more reflective I feel of Gaelic games that the matches of June, July, August or September. Lads get their debuts in the freezing cold, in the middle of nowhere.

That’s where the opportunities for the big days out are earned. We always try to reflect all of that in the books.