Hell for Leather - The Story of Gaelic Football continues on RTE.
By Cian O’Connell
"We did 80 interviews, each one is a minimum of two hours,” Crossing the Line Film’s John Murray explains about the Hell for Leather series being broadcast on Monday evenings.
Exploring the history of Gaelic Football, the tales that exist, Murray outlines the value and relevance of carrying out the work which has attracted more than 300,000 viewers so far in the first couple of episodes. “They're shot on cinema cameras, 4K and higher quality,” he adds.
“Often, they were done with two cameras. So, there is an incredible archive there for the future. Hopefully people in 50 or 100 years will be able to use and access it. Then, of course, wrestling all of that into five hours of watchable television was a massive challenge in the sense you don't want to bore people with overloading history.
“In programme one you're trying to balance the formation of the GAA, the foundation, the early years of Gaelic Football, and blend it with modern stories so that people, who mightn't be fans watching can get something out of it.”
That is part of the painstaking process. Seven years ago, The Game - The Story of Hurling, received rave reviews. So, a high standard was set and had to be met. “That started off life as a three-hour series, but then, given what we tried to do, cover the game properly and the history, it ended up as four hours with nine chapters,” Murray says.
“It was done in collaboration with the GAA, RTE, Coimisiún na Meáin. That went down reasonably well, and we thought we'd love to do football.”
Once more, though, valuable lessons were learned and being able to adapt quickly mattered deeply. “About six months into it, we realised football is a much more widely played game,” Murray reflects.
“If you're covering hurling, you can kinda cover the history of the game and the stories in a four-part series. Suddenly, with football you've all these loads of amazing stories because it is more widely played. More counties have won All-Irelands and so on.
“Basically, we started out life as a three-hour series and it became apparent as we were interviewing people that really to do justice to the game and to give space to all of the great stories, that we needed to do more.
Micheal Ó Muircheartaigh and Mick O'Dwyer feature in the series. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile
“So, it expanded to five hours. It is the first television history of Gaelic Football, and it is likely to be the last for a while. I can't see it being done for another generation.”
That distinguished figures in the GAA had an opportunity to reminisce struck a chord with Murray and those involved in the filmmaking. “It was also a critical time in Gaelic Football, in that so many of the legends were still alive,” Murray says.
“We've last interviews with Mick O'Dwyer, Jimmy Gray, Seán Murphy, Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh. These people lived through a huge period of the game and were able to give you first-hand accounts of critical formation periods in the game.
“Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh, in the first episode, we were talking about Baller Lavan in Kiltimagh, who is attributed to have invented the solo run.
“To have Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh be able to give you a first-hand account, to say I was talking to Baller Lavan, who told me when I was in Croke Park with the ball, there was open space ahead, I was able to kick it to myself and keep going.
“That was an historic moment in Gaelic Football. You've a first-hand account from Mícheál, who directly talked to the man attributed with doing it.”
The tone and tempo is something Murray was adamant about. “There is no narrator in it, we want the voices to be the people of the game,” he responds when asked about the approach.
“It is all players and managers, some historians. When you do that, it means you're letting them tell their stories. It isn't like you're bringing in a voice.
“That is a conscious decision because it creates a very different kind of film. To have the natural voice of people telling you it in a personal way, that makes a big difference.”
Armagh capatin Aidan Forker leads his team in the pre-match parade before the 2024 All-Ireland SFC Final against Galway at Croke Park. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Detail is key for Murray. Finding the right mix. “You're trying to blend lots of archive that people mightn't have seen and live action,” he says.
“To get it to work well the key is shooting it really well and having a good director, and we've a brilliant director, who did the hurling and now the football series. We've a brilliant editor. The more time, effort, and money that goes into the way you shoot it, that yields results.
“It is an enormous amount of effort to produce something that is really compelling. You've a first cut and then could spend another couple of weeks on that, keeping going. It has been a lot of work over a lot of years.
“The way we structure it is seven or eight chapters, mini stories. One chapter is Mayo and their ongoing struggling forever to reclaim the All-Ireland. That is seven or eight compact minutes, each one of those is a mini film.
"So, it is almost like you're making seven or eight films for each episode because of the way we do it.
“I think it is the best end result, myself, but it does take an awful lot of time, effort, and work. Basically, the director and editor are handling 300 hours of interviews, they're trying to construct each story using soundbites from the interviews.”
Wildlife and natural history documentaries are two thirds of what Crossing the Line Films deal with generally, but there is something about these GAA films for Murray. “We like to do passion projects, where we have a personal connection,” he says.
“Having the personal connection, you've to do good job or as best as you can. You've that legacy thing. We did feel the burden of that; it hasn't been doing before and isn't going to be done again.”
There was joy in the journey too.
The first two episodes of Hell For Leather - The Story of Gaelic Football are available on the RTE Player.
