seamus dubhghaill

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Tag Archives: Liam Brady


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Death of Bill O’Herlihy, Broadcaster & Public Relations Executive

Bill O’Herlihy, Irish television broadcaster and public relations executive, dies in Dublin on May 25, 2015. He is best known for his broadcasts for Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), primarily in the sporting arena.

Born and raised in Glasheen in Cork, County Cork, O’Herlihy is the son of a local government official and the grandson of William O’Herlihy, a news editor for The Cork Examiner. He is educated at Glasheen boys’ national school and later at St. Finbarr’s College, Farranferris.

After finishing his schooling at fifteen, O’Herlihy follows his grandfather into journalism and secures a job in the reading room of The Cork Examiner. He is only seventeen years-old when he subsequently becomes sub-editor of the Evening Echo, a position he holds for five years. He also graduates to the positions of news, features and sports reporter.

In the early 1960s O’Herlihy begins his broadcasting career when he starts to do local association football reports from Cork for Radio Éireann. In 1965, he makes his first television broadcast in a programme commemorating the sinking of the RMS Lusitania off the Cork coast. After three years O’Herlihy is asked to join RTÉ’s current affairs programme 7 Days to add the required field-reporting skills to the studio-based interviews. The programme has a reputation for its hard-hitting investigative reporting and he reports 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 comes into controversy when O’Herlihy reports a story on illegal money lending. The report is unconventional as it is one of the first television pieces to use hidden cameras, it claims the government is not responding to illegal moneylending. A tribunal of inquiry follows, and O’Herlihy is forced to move away from current affairs.

Following this controversy, while O’Herlihy is not sacked as he has fifteen months left on his contract with RTÉ, he is moved to the RTÉ Sports department. There he works under Michael O’Hehir, who dislikes him and his broadcasting style. In spite of this O’Herlihy fronts RTÉ’s television coverage of the Olympic Games that year. He also becomes involved in the production of various sports programmes.

O’Herlihy is not long in the RTÉ Sports department when he becomes a regular presenter for such programmes as Sunday Sport and Sports Stadium. In 1978 he becomes RTÉ Soccer host alongside Eamon Dunphy and, in 1984, Johnny Giles joins the panel and Liam Brady follows in 1998. Since 1974 O’Herlihy becomes RTÉ’s chief sports presenter for such events as all Olympic Games until 2012, FIFA World Cups until 2014, UEFA European Football Championships until 2012 and European and World Track and Field Championships. He hosts RTÉ highlights of the Ryder Cup in 2006 when it is at the K Club in County Kildare and continues to present coverage of Ireland’s soccer internationals for RTÉ, along with Dunphy, Giles and Brady.

O’Herlihy hosts RTÉ’s coverage of rugby union in the 1980s and early 1990s. However, when RTÉ attains the rights to cover the English Premier League in 1992, Tom McGurk takes over as host of RTÉ’s coverage of rugby union. O’Herlihy covers the Premier League, Irish Internationals and The Champions League before dropping the Premier League in 2008. He continues to cover the Olympic Games and International Athletic Championships such as the European and World Athletics. He presents the first Rugby World Cup on RTÉ television in 1987 and, with Jim Carney, co-presents the first edition of The Sunday Game in 1979.

In 2012, while covering Chloe Magee‘s progress at the 2012 Summer Olympics O’Herlihy remarks that badminton was once considered “a mainly Protestant sport.” RTÉ subsequently receives a number of complaints, and while Magee criticises the remarks, the argument is made that the incident inadvertently reflected a complex historical reality.

O’Herlihy presents RTÉ Sport‘s coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, his ninth FIFA World Cup. He fronts 18 European Championships and FIFA World Cups for RTÉ, the last of which comes in 2014. This proves to be the final tournament with O’Herlihy at the helm. He retires at its conclusion and dies the following year.

O’Herlihy attends the 12th Irish Film & Television Awards on Sunday, May 24, 2015. He dies peacefully in his sleep at his home the following day at the age of 76 nearly a year after his retirement. He is survived by wife Hillary and daughters Jill and Sally. Giles, Brady and Dunphy appear on The Late Late Show in tribute later that week. At the time of his death O’Herlihy is working on a sports version of Reeling in the Years, which RTÉ immediately cancels.


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Birth of Irish Footballer Liam Brady

William Brady, former Irish footballer who also serves as assistant manager of the Republic of Ireland national football team from 2008 to 2010, is born in Dublin on February 13, 1956.

Brady is raised in Dublin and attends St. Aidan’s C.B.S., leaving before his Intermediate Certificate. He alleges at the time that he had been expelled for missing a school Gaelic football match to play a schoolboy soccer international, however the school denies this.

Brady is a talented offensive midfielder renowned for his left foot and elegant technical skills such as his high-quality passing, vision, and close control, which makes him an excellent playmaker. He combines these abilities with significant tenacity, an eye for goal from midfield, and accurate penalty-taking. In addition to his footballing ability, he also stands out throughout his career for his professionalism.

Brady starts his career at Arsenal F.C., moving to London to join the side on schoolboy forms in 1971, at the age of 15. He turns professional on his 17th birthday in 1973, and makes his debut on October 6, 1973 against Birmingham City F.C. as a substitute for Jeff Blockley. Arsenal reaches three FA Cup finals in a row between 1978 and 1980. Arsenal wins only the 1979 final against Manchester United F.C., with Brady starting the move that ends in Alan Sunderland‘s famous last-minute winner.

Brady spends two seasons with Juventus F.C. in Italy, picking up two Italian Championship medals, in 1981 and 1982. He scores the only goal (a penalty) in the 1–0 win against Catanzaro that wins the 1982 title.

Brady makes his debut for the Republic of Ireland national football team on October 30, 1974, in a 3–0 win against the Soviet Union at Dalymount Park in a European Championship qualifier. Due to a suspension accrued before UEFA Euro 1988 he is not eligible to play within the tournament. During qualifications for the 1990 FIFA World Cup he retires from the international game. As Ireland advances to the World Cup he declares himself available to play once again. However, manager Jack Charlton goes on to declare that only those who played in the qualifiers will make the trip to Italy. Brady wins 72 international caps for the Republic of Ireland with 70 within the starting line-up, scoring 9 goals.

Brady goes on to manage two clubs – Celtic F.C. and then Brighton and Hove Albion F.C. – together with being the assistant manager of Ireland’s national football team. He also holds the post of Head of Youth Development at Arsenal F.C. from 1996 to 2013, and is a frequent television pundit with RTÉ Sport.

While at Arsenal F.C., and particularly early in his career, Brady is nicknamed “Chippy”, not for his ability to chip the ball but for his fondness for fish and chips. He also becomes involved in an anti-drugs campaign in the early 1990s, called “give drugs the boot”, encouraging young boys to play sport as a healthy pastime.