Miceal Mc Geary RIP

[T Fearon]

Shocked and saddened to hear of the death of this Maghery  man and great GAA journalist today.Back in the 70s he was the Irish News' voice of the GAA (it was the days before papers had teams of journalists,in fact there was only him,Tony McGee and John Campbell at the Belfast Telegraph)  and he was Downtown Radio's GAA correspondent for many years as well,and went on to work for Belfast Telegraph/Sunday Life and in addition was a more than competent rugby correspondent as well.Honoured by Croke Park years ago,I can still recall many of his reports and his unique analysis and accuracy,without offence. One of the great GAA journalists

[Line Ball]

Very sorry to hear this.  He always seemed knowledgeable and his reporting on the radio and print was insightful. RIP Miceal. 

[T Fearon]

I bumped into him regularly recently,and can't believe he has gone.Retired, he was,like all veteran hacks,disillusioned with modern journalism,but still very much in love with the GAA.

[BennyCake]

I can remember many a Sunday coming back from Clones, Casement or wherever and listening to Michael's excellent report on some match (usually the one we'd be coming from). A great sports journalist, and very knowledgable on the GAA. My dad would have known him well, and I would have met him lots of times over the last few years in particular. Once football was mentioned, you could have spent all day in his company such was his knowledge and interest in the game. You couldn't have met a nicer fella. An absolute gentleman.

A sad day for the GAA in Armagh. Condolences to his family. RIP.

[T Fearon]

I really can't believe it,I would have bumped into him almost weekly and he chatted away,and never looked or mentioned any illness

[Any craic]

I don't know how to post photos here and it's not really the done thing here, is it? Anyway, I've put a few pictures on Facebook from the one minute's silence in Armagh last night, which was impeccably observed for Michael, and very appropriate considering he was an Armagh man. I succeeded Michael at the Irish News back in the day and they were big boots to fill. He WAS the Irish News GAA coverage before that, not like today when you have several reporters. He had a very matter-of-fact and ethical style to his reporting. There wasn't any dressing up of stories with silly stuff, just straightforward writing. He moved to the Sunday Life when it started up but I don't think he liked it much there. There was rarely any GAA on the back page and his pages were shunted nearly into the middle of the newspaper just before the ads, and probably still are. After I joined the IN, Michael was always a source of encouragement and fun. When we met up, he would complain about this and that, as journos do, but he would always finish by saying with a big smile and a laugh 'but we mustn't grumble'!

[BennyCake]

Nice articles in today's Irish News about Micheal's passing.