Italia ’90, USA ’94 and Saipan…all buzzwords in Irish sporting history… Ray Houghton, Jack Charlton and Roy Keane all had starring roles but for the Irish public at home watching events unfold in their sitting rooms, Bill O’Herlihy was in the magic ingredient that brought all these iconic sporting events to the Irish public.
One could say that Bill O’Herlihy’s career was a game of two halves, played out between current affairs and sports broadcasting. CLOCH LE CARN casts an eye over the full match that was the life of Bill O’Herlihy.
Bill O’Herlihy was born in Cork in 1938. From childhood he wanted to be a journalist, and follow in his grandfather’s footsteps as News Editor of the The Cork Examiner.
In 1965, while working for The Cork Examiner, Bill was given an unexpected offer to cover the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania for Frank Hall’s Newsbeat television programme on RTÉ. It was an offer he couldn’t refuse! Bill was to become one of the first regional reporters for our only television channel at the time and reported on anything and everything from Cork and its environs. He became ‘kind of a big deal’ in Cork. The reports he did often came close to being Monty Python-esque with a man being buried alive in one, homemade violins in another and not forgetting odd Hollywood starlet like Jayne Mansfield causing uproar! Bill was happy in Cork and didn’t have much desire to cross the county boundary, but that he did, when his versatility and journalistic skills were noticed and he landed a job with the RTÉ primetime current affairs show ‘Seven Days’.
In 1969 Bill was the reporter on a Seven Days programme which exposed illegal money-lending in Ireland. The programme’s production methods caused controversy and led to both an internal RTÉ inquiry as well as an Oireachtas Tribunal of Inquiry.
In the wake of the fallout from the Tribunal of Inquiry, Bill made a permanent move to RTÉ Sport where he has covered everything from the ’72 Munich Olympics to Italia ’90, to Katie Taylor winning Gold at the Olympics. He has tried to keep the studio panel under control since its inception in 1978. That panel really came into its own in Euro’88 when we finally had a chance to talk about our Boys in Green on the international stage. A nation held its breath in Italia ’90 and for those who couldn’t be there in Italy, Bill O’Herlihy, Eamon Dunphy and John Giles made us feel like we were there with their exuberant studio punditry. He has mediated and agitated panel discussions on Jack Charlton, Trappatoni, Roy Keane and Monkeane. Pens have been flung and insults have flown before him. His daughter Sally sums it up when she says ‘It’s a lovely way to have lived your life to have been part of the happiest occasions that a country has seen.’
Bill O’Herlihy also had a life ‘off the pitch’. When Bill made his move from current affairs he came up with a ‘plan B’ in case the sports broadcasting didn’t work out and in 1973 he founded O’Herlihy Communications – a public relations agency working with, amongst others, Fine Gael. As part of his work with Fine Gael Bill became one of the members of the group known as The National Handlers. Their aim was to revitalise and modernise the party and Bill’s communication and television skills were priceless. Although a staunch Fine Gael man Bill had a lot of time for fellow Cork man Jack Lynch and was once asked to run for Fianna Fáil. In the words of Frank Flannery ‘that’s where the pull of the old Fine Gael came to pass and there was a certain red line he was not prepared to cross’.
Bill retired from RTÉ Sport after the World Cup Final between Germany and Argentina in 2014. However, he couldn’t walk away from the lure of television and was getting ready to shoot a new series with a working title of #Billlosbest. He’d shot the promo the Friday before he died on Monday 25th May 2015. He is survived by his wife Hilary and daughters Jill and Sally.
In this programme we hear from the people who knew him best; his daughters Jill & Sally, his friend Frank Flannery and on screen sparring partner Eamon Dunphy. Terry Prone, Emmet Ryan, Pat Butler and Bob Collins are also contributors. This episode of CLOCH LE CARN features rarely seen footage from RTÉ’s coverage of Euro ’88 and Italia ’90 as well as footage of what would have been Bill’s new show #Billosbest.
Presenter / Reporter : DARÁINE MULVIHILL
Producer / Director : EIMEAR O’MAHONY