Master of his craft Henry launches stunning new book

Picture the scene.

A former President of Ireland takes a train ride from Dublin. The carriage empties a little at Athlone and sensing his opportunity, a man slips into the seat beside the ex-president. But not just any man. A former taoiseach of Ireland is taking that same train from Dublin. The pair exchange pleasantries before settling down to praise and complain about an acquaintance who shot them both, dozens of times.

Where’s Henry Wills and his camera when you need him?

Like many of the stories attached to the images in Henry’s new book In All Kinds of Weather, sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction, and so it was that Mary Robinson and Enda Kenny really did find themselves together on last Friday’s mid-morning Heuston to Ballina service, heading west for the book’s official launch later that evening. And not as much as a dining cart in sight for the two dignitaries.

That Enda Kenny had caught an early flight from an engagement in Dubai and taken to rail just to reach Mount Falcon Estate in time is an indication of the esteem in which the retired Western People photographer is held.

“Henry Wills is the only person who could shoot you, frame you and hang you, and you’d still love him,” MC Tommy Marren told the hotel’s 400-strong attendance.

“There was an O’Hara’s bread van parked up in Claremorris once,” he continued. “In the dirt on the back door someone had written, ‘Who shot JR?’ beneath which someone else had replied, ‘Probably Henry Wills’.”

Mary Robinson, a proud daughter of Emmet Street in Ballina, is a longtime friend of Henry Wills, the son of Harry and Bea in whose public house on Garden Street he became, he declared proudly, “the only five-year-old who knew how to pull a pint”.

“I’ve always thought that photographers are the last of the dictators and Henry, you were the bossiest of them all,” laughed Mary Robinson, the guest speaker at Friday’s launch.

“But why did you do it? For perfection. To make sure you got the right photograph. And it was worth pushing people, even manhandling them. He manhandled me, even when I was president!” added Robinson mischievously, describing In All Kinds of Weather as the end product of “a master photographer, a maestro”.

“I was looking forward to seeing the book. It’s beyond all my expectations,” admitted the UN’s former High Commissioner for Human Rights.

As well as scores of Henry’s friends, neighbours and retired and former colleagues from the Western People, the evening assembled many other of the best-known personalities of Mayo life during Henry’s near 50 years behind the lens. There were the political, like Ministers past and present Padraig Flynn, Michael Ring and Dara Calleary. There were the sporting, like basketball legends Deora Marsh and the McHale dynasty, not to mention Mayo football manager Kevin McStay. And there were those who crossed both divides, like Gerry Coyle, boxing coach and county councillor, who had actually implored and persuaded Henry Wills to compile his work into book form.

“This one year he came down to cover the races in Doolough and I was under pressure, horses not showing up, jockeys not weighing in. He comes up to me and says, ‘Do you know who was down on the strand? Colman Doyle.’ I had never heard of him and I just said, ‘Who is Colman Doyle?’ “He said, my God, that would be like asking you who Mohammad Ali was.”

Acknowledged by many as Ireland’s first documentary-style photographer, Doyle is rated as one of, if not the country’s most important of the twentieth century. But he has a rival in Henry Wills if the heartfelt tributes paid on the night by Henry’s peers in the Press Photographers Association of Ireland (PPAI) are anything to go by. Dozens of his fellow PPAI members contributed to a superb personalised video and almost to a man and woman, relied upon the same word to describe their colleague: legend.

And yet some were also quick to remind him that for all the popes, presidents, Taoisigh and royalty – Hollywood or otherwise – he had snapped, there was one thing he never got to capture: a Mayo captain lifting Sam. If only the team’s shooting had been as sharp as Henry’s.

“The smaller the community, the bigger the emphasis you gave to it,” said Dr Seamus Caulfield, remembering some of Henry’s past assignments around Belderrig and beyond. “You made every community feel important.”

UCD’s retired professor of archaeology – and Céide Fields champion – was one of several speakers who paid homage on the night.

“His excellence deserves our congratulations. It’s a magical talent that he has shared with us down through the years,” said Padraig Flynn, the former European Commissioner for Social Affairs.

“We owe him a great debt,” added Dara Calleary, the Mayo TD, noting that the size of the attendance – the biggest he had seen for any event in Ballina for years – reflected the standing of Henry Wills within the community.

Former Western People editor Terry Reilly, who worked alongside Henry for over 30 years and has written the foreword for In All Kinds of Weather, remembered how the

pair had “laughed together and cried together, depending on the story,” while Irish Times picture editor Brenda Fitzsimons, who like Henry is a former PPAI president, hailed Henry not just as “a remarkable man behind the lens” but as “the truest friend I have”.

“I don’t miss having to go out at all hours of the night but I do miss the camaraderie,” admitted Henry in a wide-ranging interview with Tommy Marren.

Accompanied on the night by his twin sister Mary, he recalled schooldays at St Nathy’s College, where music mogul Louis Walsh was among his classmates, and St Muredach’s, acknowledging the education he received at both during “what, in reality, were very hard times.”

His entry into the world of photography was, however, something of a fluke. The then Western People editor Jim McGuire had been expecting a vacancy to arise quite shortly in his newsroom so in anticipation, enquired about a local lad who he had heard was ready to set off for university. Anxious not to lose Henry to the city, Jim told him to “go up to photographic and say nothing to no one”. As it happened, the reporter’s position never materialised but it didn’t matter, Henry had in the meantime discovered how to develop a photograph in the darkroom and was hooked. That was 1972.

Current Western People editor James Laffey, who has helped produce In All Kinds of Weather, told Friday night’s audience that the newspaper had been incredibly fortunate to have a man of Henry’s unique talents and personality at its disposal. Mr Laffey added that nobody had been more loyal to the Western People than Henry Wills who, he said, had always been an outstanding ambassador – and cared passionately – for the newspaper. He said it was only fitting that the newspaper should host the event, which was the flagship project in the newspaper’s 140th-anniversary celebrations.

“Henry’s ability to take a run-of-the-mill story and transform it into a classic front page image was, I believe, unrivalled in the regional newspaper industry. And I think the contents of this book also reflect his versatility as a photographer,” James Laffey explained.

“It’s so rare for someone to set such high standards in every facet of press photography, news, features, sport. Whatever it was, Henry excelled at it, and I always felt that the bigger the occasion, the better he got – and certainly the more excited he got!”

Mr Laffey also paid a warm tribute to the team involved in producing the book — Laura and Seán Lynch on design and Pádraig Corcoran for printing. Indeed, everyone at the launch was unanimous in their praise for the quality of the book, which contains 352 pages and 400 of Henry’s classic images from 1973 to 2020.

In conclusion, Henry said he was humbled by the attendance and by the affection.

“I just hope the images and the book will trigger some memories for people.”

It’s the very best of the best in the business.

Copies of Henry’s book are available in all local bookshops and online at www.mayobooks.ie.