Published: Wednesday, 23rd September, 2009 4:44pm

A friend to the famous

by Jimmy Geoghegan

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Hanging on the walls of the fishing lodge at Killeen Castle are pictures of estate manager and fishing guru Sean McManmon with some of the most recognisable faces in the world.

There is one of him with former US President George Bush senior, others with Pierce Brosnan, Sylvester Stallone and golfer Mark O'Meara. There's one of Tiger Woods proudly displaying the first ever fish he caught in Ireland with McManmon; a small little creature Woods no doubt threw straight back in.

With the pictures are framed letters McManmon has received from the various celebrities, thanking him for the time they spent with him on some river or lake, including Brosnan and Michael Flatley: "Heartfelt thanks to you and your team for a fantastic time at Killeen," wrote the Riverdance star after a recent visit.

One of McManmon's prized possession is a sand wedge given to him by US golfer Tom Lehman. It was the same wedge Lehman used to win The Open in 1997 and is proudly on display in Killeen's sumptuous clubhouse.

One of the perks of McManmon's working life is that he gets a chance to fish with the rich and famous - and get paid for it. He can also point to a impressive CV in fishing. He captained the Irish fly-fishing team for a few years and coached the Irish ladies' team, too.

He relates the memorable story of how he spent a few hours fishing with Bush when the former US President was staying at the K Club where McManmon previously worked as an estate manager. The fishing lesson was scheduled to be one hour; it turned out to be five as the two men "escaped" the glare of the security men and the cameras.

Just Bush and McManmon, on an island in the middle of a lake in the K Club, away from it all. Afterwards Bush said to him: "Money couldn't buy that."

He felt Bush was a right nice fellow and that Clinton was "a gem". He couldn't believe his eyes when he met Stallone. Instead of the muscular colossus seen in films like 'Rocky', the real Stallone was small and thin.

The rich and famous, he asserts, are mostly down-to-earth, decent people who are good at their jobs. But what all the big names get from fishing trips, he says, is a little solace away from the madding crowd, a little peace and quiet. To them, he says, moments like that are golden.

McManmon describes American golfer O'Meara as a personal friend. He knows Liam Neeson well, too, and talks to him regularly. He also once spent a day fishing with Jerry Hall, the one-time Mrs Mick Jagger. The couple visited the K Club once with their large entourage of children and staff. Hall, he says, was great company and possesses a wicked sense of humour. She also loves fishing, although it dosen't quite have the same attraction for Jagger.

Famous names

McManmon intends to bring many of these famous names to the new Killeen Castle development and show them just what is on offer there.

To those who like the outdoors, McManmon's life appears idyllic. His job as estate manager at Killeen allows him the freedom to spend unlimited time in the open air, a lot of it doing two of the things he loves most - fishing and meeting people.

Dotted throughout the 600 acres that make up the Killeen estate near Dunsany are a series of lakes and, on them, McManmon shows people from all walks of life, how to master the art of fly fishing. Talkative and affable, it's a role that comes naturally to him and something he did for years at the K Club. He spent almost three decades at the Kildare venue, most of them happy and fulfilling before moving to Killeen just over two years ago.

In a recent article in the Irish Times, McManmon was described as a "gamekeeper". It's a description that irrates him intensely. It dosen't come near to describing his varied role as estate manager. He is responsible for ensuring the place looks well, the landscape trim and neat, among other duties.

Anyone going to Killeen Castle has to pass through a security check on the front gate. From there, there's a road leading past carefully manicured lawns to the 12th century castle which the current owners have spent millions of euro on refurbishing. Cut out of the surrounding landscape are the lakes and then there's the golf course that will stage the Solheim Cup in 2011.

McManmon took over as the estate manager when he was 60 after spending the bulk of his career working in the K Club or simply Straffan House, as it was previously known. When he was asked if he would be interested in the job in Killeen, he paid a visit to see for himself - once he saw the layout, McManmon was smitten.

"When I saw Killeen, I had no hesitation. At 60 years of age I felt that not many fellows would get an opportunity to get a challenge like this and I took it on as a challenge and, after a few months, it became a passion and I'm only starting. I just wish I was 30 years younger. The job here was a new lease of life," he says.

McManmon says that, every morning he wakes up, he can hardly wait to leave his house in Straffan and get to his new place of work. He feels Killeen has brought golfing facilities in Europe to a new level.

Since he was a youngster, he has held a passion for gardening and fishing and still does. He would even go as far as saying that fishing has saved his life; saved him from slipping off the edge.

Personal tragedy

While McManmon acknowledges he has been privileged to live the life he has - the chance to meet famous people - it has not been without it's tragic, darker moments.

There was none darker than one day in May 1998 when Gardai arrived at his house to relate the tragic news that his son, Adrian, had died in a traffic accident in Dublin. Adrian was just 24.

At the same time, his wife, Aileen, was battling cancer. She was unconscious in St James's Hospital in Dublin. The worry over his wife and the death of his son caused Sean McManmon intense emotional turmoil and it was through fishing that he found a way out of the haze of grief.

"I remember very well for four or five days after Adrian died, I was in bits, I wasn't thinking right. This day I came home from hospital and I picked up the fishing rod, and I went out the back of the house and walked down to the River Liffey and spent about three hours fishing.

"Coming back up, I felt guilty. I said' how could I forget all that had happened?' Fishing, that's what it did for me. I felt guilty I had forgotten about the funeral and the death of Adrian for a few hours."

He adds: "It was incredible and when I went through all that and was getting out over the next gateway going home, I said to myself 'you can stay like this for the rest of your life, feeling sorry for yourself, our you can get on with it'."

Aileen eventually recovered from her illness but the passing of her son left an indelible mark. "Aileen would cry, she wouldn't talk about it but I knew what she was thinking. I only had to look at her with the tears in her eyes. There wouldn't be a day that would go by that she wouldn't be crying and she wouldn't tell you, but I knew."

Aileen died four years ago at the age of 58 from a heart attack. It was a cruel irony that left Sean without a friend and a wife. "I had been married to her for almost 40 years. She was more than a wife to me, she was my pal," he says. Sean and Aileen had two other children: a son, Patrick, and a daughter, Annette.

McManmon admits he is a "workaholic", frequently spending 12-hour days out and about on the estate ensuring that everything is done to a high standard. His love for his job has also helped get him through his dark days.

One of 16 children who grew up in Clane, Co Kildare, McManmon absorbed his love of fishing from his father Patrick, a Mayoman. McManmon left school at 12, spent a time working the ESB and in market gardening. Eventually, he landed a job at Straffan House, graduating through the ranks to estate manager.

One of his greatest achievements, he says, was providing the colourful backdrop for the Ryder Cup at the K Club. He used up to 40,000 flowers to ensure the blue and red of the US contrasted with the bright blue of Europe.

Golf he likes, but fishing he loves. McManmon likes to quote his father who said: "If your work interferes with fishing, give up your work!" It's partly said tongue in cheek, yet it also adequately expresses his love for the sport.

Fishing has brought him a long way in life and has helped him befriend some of the most most recognisable faces in the world. The treasured letters and pictures from the rich and famous are testimony to that.