After completing his Leaving Cert in Synge Street CBS, George began his working life as a trainee accountant in 1948, but made a career-changing move two years later to Independent Newspapers as a junior sports reporter before moving to the Irish Independent sub-editors desk in 1952.
In May 1958 he became the youngest sports editor ever on a national newspaper when he was appointed sports editor of this newspaper, a position he held for 20 years.
During his tenure he showed his innovative side as he introduced the first sports supplement, a common feature nowadays. He also revamped the layout and extended the coverage of minor sports on the basis that if a match was on the Sunday Independent would have the result.
An advocate for the abolition of the GAA’s ban on foreign games, he took advantage of the opportunity to push for it when the GAA decided that a vote should be taken on the matter in 1970. George decided to do a series of interviews featuring prominent GAA stars and officials and inter-county players in every county.
The varied response stimulated great debate and the clubs started voting, slowly at first, and the results were published every week with a list of each club’s vote. It became a landslide.
When the motion to remove the ban was called at a congress in Belfast in 1971, the president declared there would be no discussion as the members had already decided on the issue, and the motion was carried. It was a notable triumph for George and his team. “It was a big story,” he recalled, “the culmination of years of hard work and belief. It also reinvented Irish sport.”
As a sportsman, soccer and tennis were his main preferences because he felt they were the two he played best. He also enjoyed golf.
While music and drama filled a lot of his out-of-office hours, pride of place still went to his work for the NAD. When the association suffered a downturn in 1989, he was asked to help out and take on the position of chairman. He agreed, but with the stipulation that it would only be for three years.
On taking office he discovered the lease on the organisation’s headquarters was due to run out in a matter of months so the old disused infirmary on the grounds of St Joseph’s School for the Deaf on the Navan Road in Dublin was acquired. It was in a sad state and needed extensive refurbishment. However, using friends and contacts in the building sector, it was duly transformed into a fine HQ.
Among the organisation’s achievements at this time was the introduction of the Minicom, the forerunner of teletext, which enabled the deaf to reach each other by phone.
With a fine baritone voice, George was trained at the Royal Irish Academy of Music by former British opera star Dennis Noble and was kept busy performing leading roles for a number of Dublin musical societies. He was also a member of the Association of Irish Musical Societies (AIMS) bulletin committee and helped in a major revamp of the magazine.
In 1978, he decided to resign as sports editor and he moved back to the daily paper’s sports subs desk.
The return to night work put an end to his stage performances but he maintained his interest by helping many societies backstage and front of house when possible.
For nearly 40 years one of his annual holidays involved a visit to the Waterford International Festival of Light Opera. In 1987 he was recruited for the reception committee and saw every single performance since then.
A renowned orator, one of his festival duties was to meet visiting parties and give a welcome speech. And, if you were still around for the after-show singalong, you could enjoy his bracing performances of Stout Hearted Men from New Moon and One Alone from The Desert Song.
He retired from Independent Newspapers after almost 41 years and took on a labour of love working for An Óige, the national youth hostel association. He had been a member since 1948 and during those early years had toured the whole of Ireland on his bicycle.
His involvement led to positions on the national council, the management committee and finance committee, followed by a place on the special committee set up to alter the Memorandum and Articles of Association in order to change to a limited company in 2006.
He was on the Board of Directors for the next six years and helped bring in the changes to the association’s new structure after which, in 2018, he was appointed president.
George is survived by his wife Pauline — “my most supportive stiúrthóir”, as he put it — his children Cormac, Brian, Niall, Niamh (Doyle) and Orla, his grandchildren, his brother Eamonn and a large circle of friends.
