Líathróid Láimhe documentary tells the story of handball 

By Paul Fitzpatrick

If the surge in the popularity of handball could be termed a revolution, well, it will be televised after all.

This evening (6pm, TG4) will mark the television screening of a new hour-long documentary entitled Líathróid Láimhe which tells the story of handball in its centenary year through its current leading players. Filmmaker Deaglán Ó Mócháin, a Monaghan native based in Derry, had a faint knowledge of handball and a random idea led to an 18-month long project.

“I think I twigged that the centenary was coming up. I had been thinking about something about Eoin O’Duffy, I had done a documentary about the IRB so I think that might have been a circuitous route into it,” Deaglán, who was actually born in O’Duffy Terrace in Ballybay, explained.

“I was in touch with TG4 about it fairly quickly, I put together a proposal and TG4 jumped on it, to be fair to them… I wanted to look a wee bit more at the history of the sport but the documenatary has ended up quite different to that.

“Particularly with the World 4-Wall Championships (this week) coming up and the World Wallball Championships in Limerick in August. If you’d said to me what is Wallball, I wouldn’t have been able to explain it.

“I wouldn’t have known too many of the players, I would have heard of Paul Brady – coming from Monaghan, that’s one of the few things that Cavan people can throw up to you!”

From that humble beginning, Ó Mócháin got stuck in and began to research the players and the game itself.

“It started from there and the first person we met was (Galway player) Martin Mulkerrins who was fantastic and that opened our eyes, ‘this is about clubs, this is about families, this is about certain players who are really elite athletes’. We saw Martin and his brother Diarmuid playing a game early on and we thought, ‘this is just outrageous stuff, it’s off the charts’.”

Like many Irishmen of his vintage, Deaglán played a little bit of handball growing up; it existed somewhere on the extremities of his sporting consciousness.

“As a youngster we would have been down watching the good players playing in the outdoor court in Ballybay on a Sunday afternoon, we’d have been in ourselves, probably kicking football more than handball, the handball was quite sore from memory.

“We had a couple of good players locally, we would have been aware of it but we wouldn’t have seen much of it for a long time. We would have been aware of it but wouldn’t have seen much of it for a long time. The sport went indoors in our town as well and then that alley got knocked down. It was more used for racquetball and I’d have been more into racquetball so maybe out of guilt, you’re contributing to something positive about the sport now!”

Ó Mócháin’s journey took him around the country to local tournaments and major national championships.

“We went to Loughmacrory early on for their Wallball event (the annual Lough Showdown) and it’s an amazing set-up they have, I like the way it’s integrated into the GAA club and I loved the enthusiasm of the people in volved. After that we went to the Golden Gloves in Belfast and we were blown away by it, I have to say.

“And then we saw it first hand, Robbie McCarthy, Diarmaid Nash, Ciana Ní Churraoin, Catriona Casey and Fiona Tully and players like that, so we really had our eyes opened to what the documentary could become. Again, centred on clubs and tournaments and then these top, top players, the best in the world really, I suppose.

“And then we decided that we’d do less about the history but tell the story of handball through the All-Ireland Championship, the pinnacle of the handball year in Ireland. That’s the sort of route that we went.”

And what did he discover about game and its devotees?

“It’s intense, when people are into it, they are really into it. I sort of understand it, I played minority sports myself like badminton and things like that and people either love the sport or else they tend to know very little about it.

“The only player I’d have known was Paul, as I was saying, and it’s interesting that at the start of the documentary, we were conceiving of strong visual ideas and I remember suggesting to some of the handball fraternity, ‘do you think Paul would do a cameo, present prizes or something like that?’, this historic figure that most people would have heard of.”

Brady’s sensational comeback early this year saw the documentary change course; the five-time world champion had to be included, too.

“Of course, the big twist in the tale then was that Paul entered into the All-Ireland. We had picked Ciana and Martin as two Gaeilgeoirí and then we decided we needed to do the top two female players so we did Ciana and Catriona, Catriona had plenty of Irish, and then we did Robbie and Diarmaid. And we also profiled Martin Mulkerrins, even though he’s in the States, and we profiled his club and also profiled St Paul’s in Belfast.

“Paul was the last stand-out player that we really focused on, his personal history and his profile and his background. We focused on a few of the ranking tournaments, we did the Mick Kerr Memorial weekend, the She’s Ace and then that was the stepping stone into the All-Ireland.

“We had Seamus Ó Tuama in St Paul’s then on camera explaining the draw to us and he set out who the players were and where they are in terms of the game and who’d be expected to come through. And I have to say, he was very prescient too.”

The culmination of the documentary is the All-Ireland Senior Singles finals, Casey v Tully and Brady against McCarthy.

“We ended up with great finals. Catriona won all around her this year and it was clear from when we first interviewed her down in Ennis, she wanted her title back. And she got it back, she didn’t drop a set all year as far as I’m aware.

“And then Paul’s was a more interesting one, he played some great players in the All-Ireland like Peter Funchion and Conor McElduff, Diarmaid Nash, and beat them in straight sets. And the final itself then was very dramatic, it couldn’t have been scripted better, to be very cynical about it, in a way. The drama of that and the energy and the emotion of it was made for a documentary.

“We were very happy in the end. The key thing was, the further we got into it, we said, ‘Jesus, we need to get this right for the players and people that know and love the sport’. We couldn’t just be coming in, dipping our toe and making some old nonsense and heading off again.

“It had to reflect the game, we wanted people to watch it and say we got it right. That’s the sort of pressure that you want to be under, that when the thing is shown, people will say ‘that tells the story of handball in Ireland’.”

Líathróid Láimhe airs this evening (Monday, October 31st) at 6pm on TG4.