Bill O'Herlihy

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name = Bill O'Herlihy


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caption = Bill O'Herlihy asks questions of Johnny Giles and Liam Brady
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nationality = Irish
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occupation = Television presenter
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Bill O'Herlihy (born September 26, 1938) is an Irish sports broadcaster with Radio Telefís Éireann. He also heads one of Ireland's largest public relations firms.

Bill O'Herlihy has had a long and varied career in RTÉ Television in news features, current affairs and sport. He made his first television broadcast in 1965 in a programme commemorating the sinking of The Lusitania off the Cork coast. It began a three-year association with Frank Hall's "Newsbeat", with O'Herlihy becoming the first RTÉ reporter to be based outside Dublin. For Newsbeat he covered stories all over the south and west of Ireland and was also a regular contributor to RTÉ Radio Sport.

O'Herlihy, originally from Cork, moved to Dublin in 1968 as a presenter with RTÉ Current Affairs on the award winning 7 Days programme working on stories and features on the Middle East, Cyprus and Europe in addition to coverage of major national events. Since 1972 Bill has been a sports anchor on the Olympic Games, World Cups in soccer and rugby, the European Championships and the European and World Track & Field Championships. He won a Jacobs' Award for his presentation of Network 2's coverage of the 1990 World Cup, when Ireland reached the quarter-finals. He continues to present coverage of Ireland's soccer internationals for RTÉ as well as a programme called The Premiership, a weekly look at the FA Premier League.

In 1973 he founded the Bill O'Herlihy Communications Group which includes Public Relations of Ireland and Mediawise, a television production company which has among its credits programmes such as Lemass and A Portrait and the Distant Drum series on successful Irish expatriates.

In 2004 the Sunday Independent reported that O'Herlihy had lobbied on behalf of an Irish company, Bula Resources, to lift sanctions on Iraq. [ [http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1131534&issue_id=10480 'Bula paid O'Herlihy to lobby for Iraq' - Sunday Independent 22.02.04.] , [http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10004848.shtml Finfacts Ireland reporting of the incident and explaining its context.] ] Bula, which had former taoiseach Albert Reynolds as its chairman, was negatively affected by the existence of sanctions. Environmental lobbygroup and charity An Taisce also claim that O'Herlihy's company, on behalf of a client, was involved in political lobbying for a controversial land rezoning at Cherrywood in Dublin. [ [http://www.antaisce.org/press/index.html?id=248 Press release by An Taisce. 28 May 2003.] ]

Among the senior public relations practitioners who work, or have worked, with O'Herlihy's companies are Pat Heneghan, Eileen Gleeson (later press officer to the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese) and one-time RTÉ broadcaster Fintan Drury.

O'Herlihy has many admirers in Ireland for his brand of TV presenting, and has inspired a websitename, based on his catchphrase "Okey Doke", which includes a tribute page at [http://www.okeydokefootball.com/billo.asp OkeyDokeFootball.com] .

Footnotes

Bill O Herlihy was born and raised in Glasheen Road, Cork City. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=11526521]