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.
Dear Harry,
Miss your smile and your delightful sense of Humour.
Rest in peace and may God Bless you in Heaven!
Dear Thuillier Family,
I am sorry to hear about the demise of Harry, may God give your family the strength to overcome the situation.
Flora Mootz-Fu
I was born and grew up in Dublin, played table-tennis for Anglesea T.T.C. on the 1st team with Ernie Stern and Willie Heron. I was the #3 player. I played Harry Thuillier many times and always took half-crowns (or doubles or quits), from him. He refused to accept that a lesser player could regularly beat him. He was always supremely confident. He was a great defensive player but insisted on trying to hit me off the table, which he could never do. But he kept trying. He was a nice guy, and I liked him. I’m very sorry he’s gone. We never called him “Harry” we called him “Slick” which was his nickname. Rest In Peace, and my sympathes to his family.