Award-winning photographer was a mirror to the world and a dear friend to many

Irish Daily Mirror

5 days ago

The funeral of our photographer Mick O'Neill, tragically killed in a road traffic accident last weekend, took place on Monday, July 21, in Swords.Mick had travelled all over the world with his job, on often risky assignments, sent home pictures from places as far flung as Peru, Lebanon, The Netherlands, Mauritius, India, Dubai and Spain.But it is also fair to say many of our sports-mad readers had a brush with his lens at times as he covered, by choice, a lot of domestic sport.Myself and Mick's long standing joke about some of the more obscure games we covered was that 'we were not so much outstanding in our own fields but out standing in someone else's...'
It never ceased to amaze me either that he was on first-name terms with so many. He had privately organised/sent on pics, to players, clubs, charities and they remembered him. Photographers form a guard of honour at the funeral of Irish Mirror photographer, Mick O'Neill. (Image: Collins Photos)
I've done every sport imaginable with Mick as well as news stories encompassing everything from astronauts to Holocaust, from Ballyragget to Ballymun, Ploughing Championships to Galway Races.Mick was a tough newspaper character, stoic by times, with an often 1940/50s lazy carry of the camera but with a hawkeye for a picture, especially a compassionate one amid chaos.Indeed, we recently found ourselves in a corner in a tough, some might say infamous neighbourhood where his bravery behind a quick smile got us out. It is not easy carrying a couple of thousand euros worth of cameras, it makes you an easy target, but he just had that carriage - trust me.Reach PLC's Head of Photographic Zoe Watson was Mick's boss but it also made her the person responsible for delivering the roster/bad news to photographers.That they have to spend some time in a cold ditch or cramped in our 'secret' van without heating or a toilet or in Mick's case he had to go somewhere where there was sun."I've some great memories of the few times we'd been together, the last being at the photography awards in February," says Zoe.
"I'll always remember his mischievous snigger when you knew he was up to something and always had a sparkle in his eye. The funeral of photographer Mick O'Neill at the Church of St Finian's, River Valley, Swords, Dublin this morning. (Image: Stephen Collins/Collins Photo)
"He was a chancer who once tried to claim expenses for three deodorants, three bottles of suncream and four shower gels - he was only going on a four day trip to the Leb."I remember phoning him about it and the both of us just burst out laughing, he knew he wouldn't get away with that one."Multi-award winning sports writer and documentary maker David Coughland ('Louder Than Bombs: The Smiths in Ireland, 1984', 'Cigarettes and Samba', 'Crossing The Line', 'Hello Spaceboy', 'Green and Gold') is also a sports editor with this paper.If photography is about the instant, it sometimes needs a cross between Billy the Kid and Butch Cassidy - quick on the draw - or miss the moment.
"One of my favourite photos by Mick is from a job we did together down in Youghal," says Coughlan of a split-second, single frame shot he will always remember. "It was the week before Cheltenham and Davy Russell's last Festival.
"Mick lined up a photo of Davy and his father Jerry - now also sadly gone - when up popped then-four-year-old Liam in between them in sunglasses and a cowboy hat.
"Mick pressed the shutter and captured a special moment." Jockey Davy Russell with his son Liam, 4, and father Jerry in the family home in Youghal in Cork (Image: Mick O'Neill)
The Star's Deputy Sports Editor - and former Target kingpin - Paul Kavanagh recalls another deodorant related tale.
"We were in Vienna for on night to cover a motorsport event and we both had ours sprays taken from us going through the airport.
"The next morning we went wandering through the streets of the city, no clue where we were going and no shops pandering to the Lynx effect.
"We had a great laugh , and that was Mick all over, easy company and good craic."
Of course Mick O'Neill's most celebrated shot was that of the family and the big wave coming over the wall.It is a PPAI (Press Photographers' Association of Ireland) award winning shot and I remember him telling me that shot came a different way.The family had been walking along completely oblivious that the storm wall was breached every so often, it was a question waiting.
When the wave finally crashed over top, the family's St Vitus Dance wasn't just captured in one shot. There is actually a succession of them, one after another with so much movement they are almost 3D. Mick O'Neill with his PPAI award and award-winning picture
That's the same PPAI that accorded Mick one of their highest marks of respect - members formed a guard of honour for the coffin as it left the church with their cameras on the ground at their feet.Chief Crime Reporter and fiction author Mick O'Toole (Black Light, Goodreads, 2022) recalls: "As far as I am concerned his best 'sports' picture is from a golf course where, naturally enough, he wasn't a member. It was the one at Shelton Abbey prison in Co Wicklow.
"Regarding this, we believe he is the only person in Irish history ever to break INTO a prison when in September 2021, he learned that the criminal, serving life for the murder of Veronica Guerin, was now locked up there.
"Mick gained access and fought his way through woods and heavy undergrowth before hiding for several hours to get photos of his target playing pitch and putt in the prison grounds – his images deservedly made the front pages the next day."
Mick is gone but may have one big headline left in him. His picture of Michael Kelley, taken from tracking the subject deep into a wooded area in Kerry, may yet be a 2025 PPAI award winner. Michael Kelley seen here on Michael Gaine's farm near Kenmare Co Kerry. (Image: Exclusive Image: Mick O'Neill/Daily Mirror)