Frank McManus – Volunteer

Frank McManus of Lisnaskea Emmett’s is a volunteer of the absolute highest order.
From winning two Senior Football Championship medals with his beloved Lisnaskea, four All-Ireland Novelty Scor titles, being on the club committee for over 50 years, helping out with teams from Under-8 right up to Senior level, organising concerts and practically always doing linesman at every Lisnaskea game going.
McManus though is hugely modest in his opinion of what he does, “To be fair I don’t think of what I do, I just do it and it’s really what I love doing.”
He continued, “I suppose I have known Gaelic football all my life, from playing for Lisnaskea, to helping out teams and doing the odd concert to raise funds for the club.”
McManus who is married to Elizabeth and have four children, Irene is the oldest, while after that comes three boys – Frank, Ruairi and Michael.
The well known McManus is known throughout the County for his fantastic sense of humour and his go-to attitude; he is a great personality to be around and always has time for the people of Lisnaskea.
“I don’t miss any Lisnaskea or Fermanagh games, I just love the buzz of match day and especially Ulster Championship. For Lisnaskea I have probably seen it all, I have seen us winning Senior Football Championship titles and played in the 1977 and 1980 teams that won the County title, while I have seen us struggle in Division 2, that’s football, you always have to take the good days with the bad.”
He continued, “My Grandfather, Mick, was one of the key founders of the club back in 1904, I suppose people like him deserve to be remembered and the legacy of people like that done so much for the club that they are the real heroes of the club.”
Last season Frank also was part of the management team of Lisnaskea Under-14 team who narrowly lost out in the Feile na nOg Final down in Meath. He was to organise a hugely successful concert in the town that raised money for the Feile squad to get fully kitted out in training gear before the hugely successful weekend.
Success has also followed him into the Scor were he has won four all-Ireland titles at the Novelty act. “I really enjoy the Scor it’s a great way of getting out and meeting people, I suppose it’s a bit of craic and to be fair we have probably done very well at it.”
So from doing linesman, to helping out with the underage teams, McManus was also a pretty handy footballer in his day winning the two Senior Championship medals, he stated, “Football has probably changed a bit since then, it’s now much more defensive and teams are so well prepared its really mind blowing how much effort is put into backroom teams now.”
Frank McManus is the kind of person you could chat to all day, chatty, friendly and a knowledge of pretty much everything, Lisnaskea Emmett’s and Fermanagh are very lucky to have someone like him.