Ray McManus is a photographer living in Dublin, Ireland. He began his career in 1975, and in 1980 set up the Sportsfile agency, which specializes in sports photography. McManus has traveled the globe covering events as diverse as international soccer and the Olympics Games. Other international highlights include the Rugby World Cup in Australia in 2003, and the Beijing Olympics in 2008. He has attended the past five Special Olympics World Games. Gaelic football and hurling, the two national games of Ireland, are McManus’s main sporting passion. He has worked at every All-Ireland Gaelic football and hurling final since 1980, and for the past 15 years he has published A Season Of Sundays which chronicles the Gaelic games season.
McManus has won numerous Press Photographers Association of Ireland AIB Photojournalist of the Year awards, and was voted the Irish News Photographer of the Year in 1987. This year, in addition to the World Press Photo award, he was awarded first prize in the Sports Action category of AIB Photojournalist of the Year.