While still at university, McNamara did his first football commentary for Irish national radio station Today FM - the 1997 FA Cup Final.
McNamara commentated on all 13 games TV3 Ireland covered for the 2007 Rugby World cup alongside BBC colleague Philip Matthews.
[8] McNamara's first live TV commentary game for the BBC was Scotland versus Italy in the Six Nations Championship in 2011 and he has commentated on at least one match at every tournament since.
McNamara returned to TV3 for the 2015 Rugby World Cup as a presenter and commentator as TV3 had exclusive rights to the tournament and covered all games on TV3 and 3e alongside Keith Wood, Peter Stringer and Stuart Barnes.
McNamara is known to a younger, pre-school audience, as the voice of "Squawk"[13] the parrot on the British Academy of Film and Television Arts winning Cbeebies show Swashbuckle.