Mcgrath welcomes the cameras into his world
Documentary provides rare glimpse into life of Down legend
THIS Thursday, Down’s double All-ireland winning manager from 1991 and 1994, Pete Mcgrath, is the subject of TG4’S long-running documentary series ‘Laochra Gael.’
That he has agreed is a treat for fans of Gaelic football and sport in general, given his thoughtful contributions in media over a lengthy career. But, despite all his success, Mcgrath has to this point refused any book deal amid various approaches.
Even in this format, he took his time to consider it, as he explains.
“When the call came, I said I would think about it, and would think very positively about it,” he said.
“I spoke to (nephew) Peter junior about it, we chatted and said ‘sure, why not?’. It wasn’t going to be prying into the depths of privacy as such. It was going to be dealing with one’s life as it has been in the public arena to a large extent.
“After having agreed to do it, they sent on the terms of agreement, what they can expect from me and what I can expect from them. It was very fair, balanced and at any stage, for example, that there were questions being asked that I didn’t want to answer, there was no problem.
“It was pretty transparent from the start.”
The programme charts his journey from being born inside the Rostrevor house where he still resides, through an unfulfilling playing career where he felt overlooked because of his size, to his appointment as Down manager and the various honours he won in the game.
A poignant contribution comes from one of his former pupils in St Colman’s College, Jarlath Burns, who said he was instrumental in guiding young men away from getting involved in paramilitarism and into their sport.
Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, Mcgrath explains: “On my life in teaching, the most important modus operandi was you were dealing with young people, young men.
“When the dust settles on your teaching career and time goes on, you have to look back and ask how these young men will remember you, were you an influence for good, for positivity?
“When kids come to school in the morning, you don’t know what baggage they are bringing with them. The faces you see in the corridor, but what’s going on behind the smile is important. And I always felt that relating to them, getting to know them personally, to be able to get comfortable with them, I always thought that was important in teaching.”
He continues: “Given I taught in the College in the late ’70s, ’80s and ’90s when The Troubles were paramount in the north of Ireland, the schools always had to be a haven for young people, something to keep them apart from the harsh realities of what was going on outside.
“And it’s how you relate to people, what you can contribute to people’s lives. And there was a two-way process — they contributed a lot to my life.
“That was the philosophy, the modus operandi of when I was teaching in St Colman’s. It was a marvellous place to teach.”
In a lengthy career, Mcgrath was Down manager until 2002 and then later took the Under-21 team to two Ulster titles in 2008 and 2009. He discusses his disappointment at not getting another go as senior manager ahead of the 2010 season.
That he later did a brilliant job with Fermanagh, reaching the 2015 All-ireland quarter-final, and won a Compromise Rules series in 2004 shows his ability to keep up with shifting trends.
Nowadays he is managing his local club Rostrevor and, while Covid has restricted many elements of his coaching, he remains as enthusiastic as ever.
“We cannot do things the way we normally could do them. We cannot physically do things that we want to do because of restrictions and the way things are curtailed,” he explains.
“There’s no doubt that so many dimensions of our lives are different and limited and curtailed, reduced by what is going on around us. But if management in normal times is about trying to make the very best of the environment and the situation you find yourself in with the players you have got and what is available to you, the situation we find ourselves in now is just another dimension of that.
“You have to make the best of the situation we are in.
“It is like making the best of the panel when you have a couple of players injured, or gone to another club, retired or whatever it is, you deal with it, you get on with it.”
He adds: “You would like to have a certain quality of player for every single position, but you don’t rue that. It’s an issue you deal with and get on with.
“But, like all good managers, you deal with the hand you are dealt and that’s what you do.”
‘It deals with one’s life asithas been in public’