Bill O'Herlihy
| Bill O'Herlihy | |
|---|---|
| Born |
26 September 1938 Glasheen, Cork, Ireland |
| Died | 25 May 2015 (aged 76) |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Education | St. Finbarr's College |
| Occupation | Sports broadcaster, public relations executive |
| Years active | 1965–2014 |
| Notable credit(s) |
Newsbeat 7 Days RTÉ Sport |
| Spouse(s) | Hilary |
| Children | Two daughters (Jill and Sally) |
Bill O'Herlihy (26 September 1938 – 25 May 2015) was an Irish television broadcaster and public relations executive. He was best known for his broadcasts for Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), primarily in the sporting arena. Presenter for 10 FIFA World Cups and 10 Summer Olympic Games, O'Herlihy was noted for his "Okey Doke" catchphrase. Retiring from RTÉ following its coverage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, O'Herlihy was dead within the year. According to the Irish Examiner newspaper, "with the possible exception of Michael O'Hehir, Bill O'Herlihy was the broadcaster most universally welcome in Irish homes over the last 50 years."
Born and raised in Glasheen in Cork city, O'Herlihy was the son of a local government official and the grandson of William O'Herlihy, a Cork Examiner news editor. He was educated at Glasheen boys' national school and later at St. Finbarr's College, Farranferris.
After finishing his schooling at fifteen, O'Herlihy followed his grandfather into journalism and secured a job in the reading room of the Cork Examiner. He was only seventeen years-old when he subsequently became sub-editor of the Evening Echo, a position he held for five years. He also graduated to the positions of news, features and sports reporter.
In the early 1960s O'Herlihy began his broadcasting career when he started to do local soccer reports from Cork for Radio Éireann. In 1965 he made his first television broadcast in a programme commemorating the sinking of the Lusitania off the Cork coast. After three years O'Herlihy was asked to join RTÉ's current affairs programme 7 Days to add the required field-reporting skills to the studio-based interviews. The programme had a reputation for its hard-hitting investigative reporting and he reported on many varying stories from illegal fishing in Cork to the outbreak of the crisis in Northern Ireland. In November 1970 the 7 Days programme came into controversy when O'Herlihy reported a story on illegal money lending. The report was unconventional as it was one of the first television pieces to use hidden cameras, it claimed the government were not responding to illegal moneylending. A tribunal of inquiry would follow, and O'Herlihy was forced to move away from current affairs.
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