Harry Thuillier

Harry Thuillier Snr.

Harry Thuillier was born in Dublin on September 13,1922, one of six children of Joseph Thuillier and his wife Mary (née Daly). He was educated at St Patrick’s national school, Drumcondra, and St Vincent’s secondary school, Glasnevin.
He and his siblings were members of the Achilles Fencing Club and his competitive record was impressive – 14 national foil titles, the sabre title twice and two epee championships. He represented Ireland in the individual foil events at the Olympic Games in 1952 and 1960.
One of his outstanding fencing bouts was in 1954 when he crossed swords with the Swede Baron Rehbinder, Helsinki Olympics finalist, at the Irish open championship in Cork. He also was Irish table tennis champion from 1944 to 1950.
In his 20s he spent three years in England learning the basics of the leather tanning business. He returned to Ireland in 1950 and by the mid-1950s he was the advertising salesman for the Irish Catholic.
Eventually he went into business for himself, producing and presenting sponsored programmes on RTÉ radio. He was best known for programmes such as Come Fly With Me, in which he interviewed passengers on Aer Lingus flights, Tayto Quiz and Murrays’ Musical Memories. He also presented Ireland’s Top Ten.
He was the originator and presenter of the first dedicated sports programme on Raidió Éireann. A children’s programme, Junior Sports Magazine , first went on air in 1955 and mainly covered rugby, hockey and athletics. Up to then sports coverage was confined to match commentaries and separate GAA and soccer results programmes.
In July 1962, he was a guest on the first ever Late, Late Show on RTE, along with Danny Cummins, Verona Mullen and Prof Liam Ó Briain.
In 1979 he helped found the first Lions Club with an exclusive sporting membership, serving the Sandymount-Irishtown-Ringsend area of Dublin. He was a former chairman of the Fencing Federation of Ireland.
Harry Thuillier died on April 26, 2011. He was predeceased by his son Harry jnr, the photographer, in 1997. He is survived by his wife Frankie (Frances McDermott), and sons Nikki and Ian.