Hell for Leather: How we made RTÉ's epic new GAA series
Colm O'Callaghan, RTÉ's Head of Specialist Factual Content, introduces Hell for Leather, an epic new 5-part RTÉ One series, delving into the role of Gaelic football in the sporting, cultural and social history of modern Ireland.
RTÉ's history of hurling series The Game was first broadcast in May 2018. Made by Crossing the Line Productions and directed by Gerry Nelson, it was a cinematic and wide-ranging undertaking that, in its style, execution and ambition, resonated quickly. I've written previously here about why we commissioned it.
As soon as the curtain came down on that series, our thoughts turned quickly to an obvious next step: a similar strand about Gaelic football. The seven years its taken to finally get that five-parter - Hell for Leather - to air, is worthy of a drama serial in itself and there were times when I felt we were never going to see it home at all. Needless to say, I'm glad we stayed the journey.
As tends to be case with large-scale commissioned projects, I took many meetings and did an awful lot of talking before even formally asking RTÉ to consider supporting it. The primary issue was with what had just gone before it and with how effectively The Game had landed. Should we even bother, I asked the creative team at Crossing the Line, to attempt something similar with a sport often regarded by purists as the less aesthetic and less skilful of the family of national games?
Any misgivings I had were quickly put to bed by a couple of trusted friends and regular sounding boards. Michael Moynihan and Diarmuid O'Donovan are fellow clubmen of mine from the fabled Glen Rovers on the northside of Cork city, even if Diarmuid is arguably better known for his involvement with the football side of that club, Saint Nicholas, and his work in a variety of roles at county level. Sharp, serious men both, they sketched out a provisional list of potential themes, topics, chapters and cast members for the team to chew over and flesh out. They didn't so much ease my mind as bend it in a variety of directions and, by doing so, turned much of what I'd ever thought about Gaelic football on its head.
The game in Ulster, industry and All-Ireland success in the midlands, the eventual dawning of the women's game, Kerry's eternal majesty, the Jacks and the Culchies, Dulchies, Heffernan, Dwyer, the mighty men from Down, the mighty women of Cork. Seán Boylan, Mick O'Connell, the golden age of wireless, Sister Pauline Gibbons, Jim McGuinness and Jim Gavin. Bringing boardroom thinking to breeze-blocked dressing rooms. Renaissance, reformation, age of empires, true leaders and the days of our lives: it was up to director Gerry Nelson to shape the mine of history, some of it happening before him in real time, into tangible blocks.
Sport is often seen as a reflection of life and, in this regard, its possible to trace the development of modern Ireland since way before independence through the prism of Gaelic football. Stitching this editorial thread into the heart of Hell for Leather was always a tall order but one that producers John Murray, Jessica McGurk and Siobhán Ward managed with typical elan. So in as much as the series tracks the evolution and history of the game as comprehensively as time allows, it also tells a story of Ireland.
With The Game already under the belts of the production team – as well as 2020's one-off, Christy Ring: Man and Ball – the doors opened far more easily this time around. Jarlath Burns, who has since become the most recent Uachtarán of Cumann Lúthchleas Gael, was an enthusiastic voice from early on and helped unlock a variety of editorial lines. In every club and parish that we approached during the long gestation of this series – and there were many – the welcome was fierce and the humour was always good.
So, what kept us? When we first discussed the potential for a series, I'm not sure if any of us expected the production period to endure for so long. But then neither could we have foreseen Covid, an All-Ireland final played during a lockdown and the consequences for sport, film-making and life in general during that time.
Projects of this scale also require multiple funding and finance strands too and, to this end, we're grateful to Coimisiún na Meán, the Department of Finance, the Gaelic Athletic Association and to Collen, our generous sponsors, without whom the project could never have taken flight.
And then there's the more mundane and practical stuff. Many of those featured in the series are proud, fabled former players for whom modesty has long prevented them from opening up about their own heroics and the scale of their achievements. The likes of Mick O'Connell, Seán O'Neill, Jimmy Gray and Seán Murphy are among many who decorate this production but for whom numerous site visits and no little persuasion was necessary. Others, despite our best and enduring efforts, just couldn't or wouldn't commit.
All history is contestable, of course, and this too is the case with Hell for Leather. How can one realistically do justice to such a varied and complicated past in just 250 minutes of airtime? It is, therefore, to the credit of Gerry Nelson and series editor Andrew Hearne that the series delivers far more than the sum of its parts and still stays true to its purpose as agreed way back at the start.
Gaelic football, flush with its recent re-enhancements, is enjoying a renewed sense of freedom, and talk of its latest existential crisis has abated, at least for now. As the former Kerry captain, Dara Ó Cinnéide told Nelson, "at the end of the day it's a game … but it's this bloody game we love so much". As a reminder about why Gaelic football's well-being matters, Hell for Leather is as good a starting point as any.
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Irish Examiner
26 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
Anthony Daly: Can Galway bring enough anger to derail what is now a Liam Cahill team?
During my six years as Dublin manager, I only had a handful of rows with John Costello, then Dublin secretary and CEO, but one of the biggest arguments I had with John was before the 2014 All-Ireland quarter-final against Tipperary. We had just been beaten by Kilkenny in the Leinster final when I got a call from John the following day to inform me that the likely venue for our quarter-final was Thurles. I lost the head. 'What the hell are we going down there for, into their backyard? No way. Tell them to clear off.' John wasn't having it, saying that Tipp were arguing the decision on the basis that they had played us in Croke Park in the All-Ireland semi-final three years earlier. 'Is this a joke John?' I asked him. 'Sure every All-Ireland semi-final is in Croke Park. What did they want us to do – play it in Portlaoise? Tell them not a hope are we going to Thurles.' I was bull thick but I ended up banging my head off a brick wall. When I couldn't get around Costello, I tried to sweet talk the late Andy Kettle, who was then chairman. When Andy couldn't do anything to change the decision, I got Ciaran 'Hedgo' Heatherton, one of my selectors, to ring Seán Shanley, who was vice-chairman and very sympathetic and supportive towards the hurlers. I was raging when we seemed to be talking to the wall, especially when I was already seething with our performance in the Leinster final. I felt we needed every advantage going to try and beat Tipp – and now we had to go into their own patch. In my own head, I just felt it was all very unfair. I remember going into Parnell Park the Tuesday night before that quarter-final and the grass wasn't even cut. Even at the best of times, the pitch in Parnell had a ropey surface and I was picturing Tipp below in Thurles training on the carpet they were now going to play on. That Tipp game was my last match as Dublin manager. We were well beaten. It wasn't the way I wanted my six-year tenure to end, but the whole frustration almost encapsulated my attitude towards All-Ireland quarter-finals. I just didn't like them. And I still kind of don't. Maybe it's just my experience with Dublin that has clouded my judgement because I had a lot of good days in quarter-finals as a player and manager with Clare, beating Galway in 1999 (after a replay) and overcoming Wexford twice (as a manager) in 2005 and 2006. The only blip was the quarter-final defeat to Kilkenny in 2004 after a replay but the drawn game was a magical day, when we looked dead and buried before Jamesie O'Connor nailed the equaliser with the last puck. My first quarter-final with the Dubs was in 2009 when we lost to Limerick in a match we should have won. We had a good year and had made great progress, which was very satisfying, but it was still a missed opportunity that gnawed away at me over the winter. In 2011, we had won the league before losing the Leinster final to Kilkenny, but it wasn't that hard to lift the lads ahead of the quarter-final against Limerick. We'd had a good year. The league final gave us great confidence and the Kilkenny defeat didn't drain a lot of that out of us. I felt we'd beat Limerick, which we did. That was the one high-point but I have never warmed to quarter-finals since. Even though Clare won their last three quarter-finals, I found them frustrating experiences even as a supporter. Maybe it's just the hurling fanatic in me but I always get the impression that half the stadium doesn't care when there is a double-header. Whichever crowd loses the curtain-raiser is gone by the final whistle, while the winners' supporters are out the gap by half-time of the second match. And the whole sense of occasion just collapses like a deck of cards. Cork are a different animal again, win or lose. After they lost the 2022 curtain-raiser to Galway, the rebel hordes emptied Semple Stadium. After they beat Dublin in the curtain-raiser last year, the red wave just swept out of Thurles like a tide washing out to sea. Having the games early on a Saturday afternoon twice in the last three years certainly didn't help, but I have long felt that the double-header just doesn't work and that there should be standalone fixtures. Circumstances have dictated as much now, which I think will certainly make a difference around the atmosphere and appeal of the matches. The Dubs may be part of a double-header with the footballers but at least they'll get a decent crowd in early, while Limerick will arrive to the capital in enough numbers to make it feel like an occasion. I'm glad that Galway-Tipp is in Limerick but I'd have preferred if it was on in Ennis – and not just out of comfort for me. I'm not sure what kind of a crowd will be in the Gaelic Grounds but it certainly won't be a sellout, whereas Ennis would have been. I just felt they should have gone with Cusack Park and made it an all-ticket game. The vast majority of people who will go today would have got a ticket but the scramble would have also drummed up more hype and discussion around the occasion, which, to be honest, has been fairly low-key this week. Much of that is down to the GAA not promoting the quarter-finals enough but it's also probably a result of the distrust around Galway and what team may actually turn up. Galway haven't liked Tipp since the 1980s but they're so Jekyll and Hyde that even their own supporters can't trust them to bring enough anger into this match to make it into the kind of spectacle that their public deserves. Galway were a joke in their opening game in Nowlan Park and, while they recovered well in their next four matches, they were back to their old bad habits in the Leinster final. Aside from a seven or eight minute burst late on, Kilkenny rode roughshod over them. Galway need to cut loose again now because I'd be fairly confident that Tipp will. They're back in a quarter-final when a lot of people – including their own – wouldn't have expected Tipp to have reached this stage at the outset of the championship. They have improved as the championship has gone on, but I also think they're in a far better physical – and mental – state than they were when Tipp were last on this stage in 2023. That year, their form was slowly draining away as the championship progressed and they effectively bottomed out against Galway that afternoon in Limerick. I'm not sure if all the older brigade had bought into the Liam Cahill project in that first year whereas this is definitely Cahill's team now. Tipp almost seemed stuck in neutral on that mid-June evening in 2023 whereas this is a team on the move now. This has all the makings of a cracker but I really think it's down to Galway to make sure that it is. Is there enough badness in them to win a game like this? Everybody is already talking about Cork and Tipp in the semi-final. That's dangerous talk for Tipp but it's music to Galway's ears. Tipp have to block out all that outside noise. They're capable of beating any team on any given day, but can they step up and take down a Galway team now that, on paper, they are better than? I just think that you can trust Tipp more so I fancy them by about three points. When the option of going to Croke Park to take on Dublin was put to Limerick, I'm sure it wasn't even a discussion for John Kiely. As well as Limerick loving the venue, only losing there under Kiely in championship for the second time last year, it's also an ideal opportunity for Limerick to flush that bad memory out of their system before stretching their legs at Headquarters ahead of an expected match-up there with Kilkenny in two weeks. Limerick are too professional to be looking that far down the tracks without focusing on the job in hand, but I can't see Dublin being able to contain a wounded animal hell-bent on retribution since the Munster final defeat. Losing that game on penalties again underlined just how hard Limerick are to beat and, aside from the deficit in physicality and hurling ability, I don't think Dublin can be in the right frame of mind to take down Limerick either. If they had beaten one of Galway or Kilkenny in Leinster, it would have at least given them the confidence to think that they can live with Limerick. But I can't see it. Limerick won't be concerned about putting on a show. They will only be focused on getting the job done, which Limerick will. Kilkenny will come in their own good time.
Irish Examiner
41 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
Dangerous Down almost ready to mark their territory
THE soon to be dormant, if not extinct, All-Ireland group stages have generally followed the rule of law. Table-toppers generally beat preliminary quarter-final winners - six out of eight times - and the two All-Ireland winners under the system, Dublin and Armagh, have topped their group. In a format not above criticism, the layered reward for where you finish in your group generally holds true. If there is one anomaly, and something that provides hope to a quartet of teams this weekend, it's that in the eight preliminary quarter-finals played, the third-placed team has travelled to the home of their rivals and won on four of seven occasions, while Monaghan also edged out Kildare in neutral Tullamore in 2023 with Newbridge out of action. Last Monday's preliminary quarter-final draw, containing more heavyweights than anticipated, resulted in three lop-sided pairings and one tie that just carries a whiff of, well if not cordite, enough propellant to provide a potentially combustible situation for Galway's All-Ireland hopes. Donegal v Louth, Kerry v Cavan and Dublin v Cork all look like foregone conclusions no matter how it's spun – and maybe the shock will come in amongst those – but Galway travel to Newry to face a Down team that seem best placed to upset the odds. That's true for two reasons. Firstly, Down have made unarguable progress under manager Conor Laverty while Galway, All-Ireland finalists in two of the last three seasons, just haven't settled into this championship since their successful Connacht run – although they will hope that their stirring second-half comeback against Armagh will offer the spark. Sunday in the Marshes will tell us more. Reigning Tailteann Cup champions Down are preparing for their biggest home match since the visit of Mayo in 2019. There have been Ulster clashes since, but nothing to match the level of excitement in the border town this week – or parts of it anyway. Back in 1994, Armagh's pre-season started prior to the All-Ireland final between Down and Dublin meaning that some of their players made the trips to training via a red and black bedecked Newry, seething inside as they passed every good luck flag and piece of bunting. They stayed up for months as Down raised Sam for a fifth time, but 31 years later there hasn't been as much as an Ulster title. Last year's Tailteann Cup was as much about ending a long wait for silverware as the trophy itself. Drive through Newry today and it's the orange and white bunting hanging from lampposts, a hangover from Armagh's All-Ireland triumph 12 months ago. The car flags driving in and out of a city that will always be referred to as 'town' by locals, are Orchard County ones. Except McCoy's Bar on the way to the ground and Páirc Esler itself, Down haven't braved marking their territory – yet. But there is belief, genuine belief, that they are ascending. Results are results but relegation to Division 3 this year was undeserved, subsequent championship displays have reinforced that feeling that they can compete with the best. When Laverty was appointed manager in August 2022, he took on a county in disarray. James McCartan oversaw a winless season beforehand and had been close to stepping down after a serious breach of discipline by players at a training camp in Dublin before being convinced to see the campaign out. 'Players have accepted responsibility and have rectified the situation," Down secretary Sean Óg McAteer told Ulster publication Gaelic Life at the time. Five players, including NFL player Charlie Smyth and current panellist Caolan Mooney, departed the panel before the Tailteann Cup with the latter lashing out at McCartan in an interview with the Smaller Fish podcast. Sources close to the camp suggested that the training block for the Tailteann Cup was the most enjoyable of the year while there was considerable anger that a Mourne legend like McCartan had been treated so poorly. Three seasons on, and of the 20 players who featured in Down's 2022 Tailteann Cup loss to Cavan, McCartan's last game in charge, only Peter Fegan, Ryan Magill, Daniel Guinness, Odhrán Murdock, Pierce Laverty and Patrick McCarthy were on the field against Monaghan last week. McCarthy, Magill and Murdock all won a pair of Ulster U20 crowns under Conor Laverty, Pierce Laverty was a long-time captain and Daniel Guinness has been Down's most consistent player over the last five years. Burren corner-back Fegan comes highly rated. Kilcoo man Laverty has 13 county medals in his pocket – and an All-Ireland too – from playing with the Magpies. He has crafted a Down team that shares so many of their attributes. Physically smaller than many opponents – as Down will be against Galway – they have an extraordinary handle on the basics and operate a running game that is maybe only bettered by Donegal currently. It's not the size of the dog in the fight, after all. He's also managed to rub out one of the black marks that had been hanging over the side – the lack of a marquee forward. On Sunday, barring any unfortunate injury, Pat Havern will move from 0-99 for the season to over the 100-point mark. Shane Walsh may have edged him out in the National League as the two-point king, but Havern is now the current heir to the throne with 21 to Walsh's 18 – although the latter did miss the Connacht championship. Havern, who looked destined to be one of Ulster's top handballers before giving it up at a young age, has previously been accused of not doing it against the top teams. Such notions have been swept away this season, Galway be warned. The men and red and black aren't back just yet, but a visit to the last eight of the All-Ireland for the first time since 2012, and at the expense of one of the favourites for Sam, and that Down bunting will start to be unfurled.
Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
Sam Mulroy: 'Families, lives, work and holidays need to count. We're not paid for this thing'
Sam Mulroy got a message from his clubmate JP Rooney earlier this week. It was a picture of the former Louth player's son playing football in the backyard. Before Louth's victory in last month's Leinster final, which sealed their first senior provincial title in 68 years, it seemed the apple had fallen far from the tree. 'His young lad John was never in love with football until he came and watched Louth playing in a Leinster final a few weeks back,' explained Mulroy at the All-Ireland knockout stages launch. 'It was very nice to see that you're inspiring the next generation of players. 'Louth is a small county with two massive towns and two massive soccer clubs in Dundalk and Drogheda. It's been a battle over the last while, especially with Dundalk's success in recent years in Europe. There's definitely more Louth jerseys floating around on kids these days.' Three years ago, Mulroy appeared on the BBC's The GAA Social podcast and said winning a Leinster title in the next five or six years was a realistic ambition for Louth. He took flak for his comments. To some, it seemed fanciful. Dublin's All-Ireland juggernaut might have been halted the previous year, but they still looked unstoppable in the province. After losing the Leinster finals of 2023 and 2024 to Dublin, Mulroy's prophecy came through. He had stopped just short of saying 'why not?' when asked on that podcast if Louth could win the All-Ireland. Now he's edging closer towards it. 'Last week Meath beat Kerry, and they've beaten Dublin, and there's games, there's results that you wouldn't be calling, maybe last year, that are happening this year,' said Mulroy, top scorer in the championship with 4-34. He believes Gaelic football's new rules have made the game more open. That's not to say he loves every one of them. He doesn't like that the kickout has to go beyond the 40m arc or having to hand the ball to an opposition player after a foul is committed, but what annoys him most is the altering of the rules during the season. 'It's 11 v 11 instead of 15 v 15, there's space to get shots off; players are expressing themselves a little bit more because the game's so fast, and there seems to be a lot more plays happening,' he said. 'Each play doesn't seem to be as important, whereas last year, if you turned the ball over, you could go without the ball for three, four, five minutes.' Louth face Donegal in a preliminary quarter-final on Sunday in Ballybofey. Mulroy knows Donegal manager Jim McGuinness well. McGuinness was involved with Mulroy's club when they won the Louth SFC in 2020 and 2021, the former being the first time Naomh Mairtín claimed the senior title. 'Jim was immense when he was with us, and a gentleman, and always very good with his time,' said Mulroy. 'I've got an awful lot of respect for Jim and what he's done for the game, for Donegal and our club. That was our first ever senior title in the club, so it was very special. I'll never forget that and the help he gave us. 'I was captain in 2021. He was very big on leadership and driving the group on. He would have spoken to me individually. I learned an awful lot. Just on the training pitch, how he spoke to players and got us to bring up our levels - you can see why he's been so successful.' GAA president Jarlath Burns said earlier this month that moving the All-Ireland finals to August from 2027 on would have his support. It would not have the support of Mulroy, who enjoys the split season as it stands. 'It gives a bit more time for those county players to get a little bit of a rest before they go back to the club,' he said. 'Taking into consideration the players' downtime is massively important. If you bring the All-Ireland final back to August and then they're still playing their club finals in November, December, when are they going to stop? That has to be a key consideration for everyone that's making that decision: when do the players get time off? Families and lives and work and holidays need to count. We're not paid for this thing, so I think that definitely has to be the big consideration. 'Even if you got a few more weeks between games… It's not as if you get to go and live your life for a few weeks. You're still training like a professional athlete, you're still in the camp, you're still going away on training weekends. If you push the weeks out, you don't get the time off. It's not as if we're going to be let go and go sun ourselves for a few weeks. 'Prolonging the thing adds more volume of training for players. I know it's tight between games right now, but like, Jesus, I love it. I played last weekend, I get to play again this weekend, I'd rather that than having to go train.' The possibilities for Louth in Monday's draw were all tough. It was Kerry in Killarney, Dublin in Croke Park or Donegal in Ballybofey. They would have been underdogs in the first two, and also will be on Sunday, but it's not outlandish to think they could pull off an upset. 'That's my belief, and I'll definitely be putting that message to the players when we go to training, that we're not going up to Ballybofey for the craic, or to fulfil a fixture, we're in a preliminary quarter-final of the All-Ireland Series,' said Mulroy. 'We played in a quarter-final here (in Croke Park against Donegal) last year, so it's a case of, 'let's try to go better again this year, and try to progress as a team.''
