There has never been a rugby player even remotely like Tony O’Reilly.
He was the youngest ever international, being only 18 when he first played on the wing for Ireland. His was the first name on the list when rugby’s International Hall of Fame was established, and he became far and away the richest ex-player in the world.
However O’Reilly spectacularly crashed and burned as a businessman; and as an individual he is, at the age of 78, a victim of numerous health challenges, including dementia.
His story is one of astonishing achievement. At school he was into everything. He played every available sport, he was an accomplished actor, singer and pianist, qualities he used to dramatic effect later in life, bewitching adoring audiences all over the world with his impromptu performances. A brilliant law student, he subsequently did a PhD in agricultural marketing while playing international rugby.
As a rugby player he was big, quick and confident and scored more tries for the Lions than anyone else ever has. After a seven-year break he made a dramatic comeback for Ireland at the age of 33, 15 years after he was first selected.
But that wasn’t anywhere near enough to satisfy Tony. A year or two out of university he was on the way to his first million. From the Irish Dairy Board to Heinz, where he blitzed his way to the top through sheer creativity and the force of his massive personality. At one stage he had six kids under the age of four, thanks to a set of triplets. All of these mirror his larger-than-life persona.
Nothing could stop him. He bought into the Independent News and Media group, invested spectacularly in offshore oil, rescued that iconic Irish enterprise the Waterford Wedgewood, spawned a wide range of other ventures with his children, and became Ireland’s richest man in the 1990s.
The world was at his feet. He owned property all over the world, supported countless Irish causes, endowed large sums to education and heritage, and amused and enthralled audiences wherever he spoke. He was invited to join the Irish cabinet and if he had run for Prime Minister he would have bolted in, but he wisely resisted that temptation. The British government gave him a knighthood, an unusual gesture for an Irish patriot.
I first met him while playing for the Irish Wolfhounds, one of his pet indulgences in the 1970s, in which an invitational team would tour Ireland in a whirlwind of music, mayhem and serious drinking with a little rugby thrown in to give the whole thing some respectability. He was then in his mid-30s but still as fast and aggressive a winger as ever. He would play a match, party all night, then turn to his business affairs first thing the next morning.
He sponsored a rugby training academy in troubled Belfast around that time, and personally paid to bring in experienced players and coaches to help Irish rugby serve as a catalyst for contact between deeply divided communities.
Years later, when he was Chairman of Heinz, he called me while I was New Zealand’s ambassador in Zimbabwe and asked me to help him persuade Robert Mugabe to establish a joint venture with the government to produce vegetable oil. We set up a lunch and Tony, the quintessential capitalist entrepreneur, proceeded to charm the distinctly uncharmable, hard-line socialist President Mugabe. Both were catholics so Tony played to that. Both were fascinated by cricket and Tony played to that too. He played the piano for Mugabe; he sang for him and promised a healthy donation to various urgent Zimbabwean causes. He got his deal and it worked well until Mugabe’s government began to nationalise every foreign enterprise in sight.
In spite of all that was happening over the decades after he stopped playing, Tony O’Reilly’s passion for rugby never diminished. He has popped up at Test matches in Australia and New Zealand in recent years, and always relished the chance to look up his old mates and reminisce.
It seems so sad that someone of such boundless energy and positivity should now be crippled by insolvency and ill health, the two worst afflictions he could imagine. Neither of these will however diminish his utterly unique status in rugby.
Crash Ball2
Guest
Really enjoyable read Chris. Thanks.
Derm
Roar Guru
Chris - lovely eulogy on a great rugby player. Never met the man but a fine raconteur by all accounts. Fallon's book is a tad fawning but a good read nonetheless. Hadn't realised that Tony O'Reilly had been hit by dementia - a curse I would wish on no one. Despite his recent setbacks in wealth and health, he's always struck me as a man with an indefatigable air: Here's to a fellow who smiles when life runs along like a song. And here's to the lad who can smile when everything goes dead wrong.
Dublin Dave
Guest
And johnny Quirke played for Ireland at 17, but that was after O'Reilly was first capped.
Chris
Guest
Tom Prydie played for Wales when he was 17!
RobC
Roar Guru
Yes, thanks Chris. Looks like another one on the Chrissie reading list.
Barry Donovan
Guest
Tony O'Reilly was indeed a terrific player and a great personality as a member of the great 59 Lions team that toured NZ. He combined that rugby skill with his business career which led to a lively comment from the Irish crowd when he played one of his last games for Ireland in Dublin. O'Reilly had been driven to the game in his company limousine which amused some fans. When the big winger was caught and punched by an English player a shout came from the crowd :"And give him another one for the chauffeur!"
Dublin Dave
Guest
I remember seeing Chris Laidlaw play for the Wolfhounds on one of those tours of Ireland back in the late 60s early 70s. His name was not mentioned in the program (obviously the originally selected person must have got "injured" some time on tour on, or more likely, off the field). He was very noticeable at the time, first because his shock of blonde hair stood out and also because he didn't use a dive pass which was the norm for scrum halves back then. You notice these things when you're about eight! The first mention I heard of Tony O'Reilly was when his recall to the Irish team against England in 1970 as a last minute replacement for an injured player was the first item on the Irish radio news. I distinctly remember asking my mother "Who on earth is Tony O'Reilly?" That game, his first for about five years, presented him with a host of self-deprecating anecdotes with which he regaled audiences over the years. One was about waiting pensively in the lobby of the hotel before departing for the game and thinking about his lack of conditioning and match practice. Team mate Willie John McBride saw that he looked worried and asked him what the trouble was. "Well it's this young lad Keith Fielding that I'm up against," said O'Reilly. "So?" "Well I notice he's a sprint champion and I'm afraid he might just run round me." "No fear of that." said McBride. "It's too far!"
Dublin Dave
Guest
Trying to bale out Waterford Crystal. That was a money pit. Also, Irish property crashes and being heavily involved in the newspaper industry at a time when it is facing general uncertainty and disruption wouldn't have helped.
oldbarkerboy
Guest
MORE NOSTALGIA Attawai Drive - saw John Young for England as I was with Harlequins & he was too when not at Oxford Harlequins' & England's captain was Ricky Bartlett who sadly passed away from cancer when quite young, Remember The Times saying John Young had thighs the size of beer kegs (tuns), but he could fly! S T
Ted
Guest
Well said Chris . There was possibly never a man who could hold so many enthralled in his Company . He had the gift of making anyone with him feel as important as himself , whoever they were . His rugby is well recorded and to become the firs non family member to chair Heinz speaks volumes . His charisma alone drew masses of people and cash into initiatives such as the Ireland Fund .as another poster said insolvency could be seen as a lost game in a winning career. However, in his case with wealth measured above a billion, and a man who found his way out of every corner, this was a crushing and irredeemable pill it seems. Humiliation loomed large. Most have faced this demon, but not on this immense scale and with the price of removing all ongoing good work from his financial capacity . There is a view he got greedy , but this is not this man. He simply believed in his ventures with a passion and made human errors defending that vision . His flaw appears to be his unswerving belief he could always resolve the issue in front of him ( it did work for 60+ years ) . I see no greed in this . Of course there was ego. This is emphasized with the demise of Waterford Wedgewood which he saw as a national treasure that had to be protected from failure . It is not well recognized that as WW was in its death throes, that he ( also supported by his brother in law ) literally threw many hundreds of millions into the business as a last ditch stand . No funny , sophisticated , or risk removing financial structures for him . He lost all this money , along with everyone else, and was not secured ahead of others . This no doubt contributed heavily to his personal demise. I remember some fine moments - first , as I was approaching under the cement Stadium in Durban or Ellis park ( I forget which) at 1995 World cup to my elcheapo seats , I noticed 3 car park spots . The signs told the story - president , chairman and the third - Tony O' Reilly . Second - at his home Castlemartin after an Ireland Australa game finding myself in the presence of what seemed to be every great Irish rugby player and the best of his era fom England and beyond . As a non hero, this was an amazing to me . But I remember a fresh faced Nick Farr Jones equally awestruck . I believe Tony played piano to all and sundry that night . But overwhelmingly generous and inclusive in equal servings. Thirdly - at 2007 Paris World Cup - Tony hosted ( in the all encompassing meaning of the word ) at one of the worlds leading hotels, all his playing contempories that wished to come including permanent hospitality rooms . I'm sure most could not have committed to the huge semi and final prices , let alone the other costs . He never forgot anyone, and he certainly wasn't forgetting his tribe as age was taking its toll. Now it is claiming this remarkable man - but I knew him back when ...
Gatesy
Guest
What can we do to help? I heard him speak at a lunch many years ago - charismatic - thanks for you input, Bakkies
David Corduff
Guest
I grew up in Dublin and played as a winger in the school team...always had trouble beating Belvo the home club of Tony O. He was a larger than life guy that I admired for his rugby playing ability. Later I came to admire his prowess in the business field which was like his rugby...a larger than life individual if ever there was one. The piece from Chris Laidlaw was beautifully written and it is so sad that dementia is overtaking a man who has made many an Irishman proud, particularly those of us who chose to make our home far away from the land of our birth (Australia). Rugby will lose something of a legend when the creeping disease finally takes him.
Bakkies
Guest
Poor business decisions and got greedy. It's well publicised on the net.
Worlds Biggest
Guest
Great piece Chris, has there been a more talismanic figure in Rugby than Tony O'Reilly. What an iconic figure in every sense of the word. My Father is Irish and the same age as O'Reilly. We were only talking about him a few weeks ago, very sad regarding his dementia. The guy was worth an absolute motza, how did he lose it all ?
Atawhai Drive
Roar Guru
How excellent to be able to turn away from a pleasant sporting present _ Australia on top at the Gabba _ and feed the nostalgia impulse by reading this excellent piece from Chris Laidlaw. Tony O’Reilly was one of my early sporting heroes. I first played rugby in 1958 but had no real knowledge of the game outside the junior club I played for. The following year, when the Lions made their epic tour (six matches in Australia including two Tests, 25 matches in New Zealand including four Tests, plus two matches in Canada on the way home), changed all that. Living in a wild and remote area of rural New Zealand, everywhere was far away. It took a whole day to get to Christchurch by car or train. It was incredibly exciting to have a team of British rugby players touring the country for several months. We followed the tour mostly via radio commentaries and newspapers in that pre-TV era, although an oil company sponsored 16mm films of the Tests that were shown around the country in cinemas. The Lions picked four wingers for the tour, two from Ireland (O’Reilly and Niall Brophy) and two from England (Peter Jackson and John Young). Brophy suffered a tour-ending injury in the second game of the tour, against NSW, and O’Reilly and Jackson had a lock on the Test wing spots, although Young got a Test in NZ as the Lions lurched from one injury crisis to another. O’Reilly was a big man for a rugby winger in that era, and was one of the first to wear cutaway boots. He scored a lot of tries on the tour (17 in NZ, from memory). There is a famous picture of him taken at Auckland from end-on during the fourth Test, when he dived over in the left-hand corner for a try in the tackle of All Black winger Bruce McPhail. Close at hand, riveted by the spectacle, is touch judge Gordon Wood, a member of the Lions touring party. That’s how it was in those days _ the referee was a New Zealander and an Irish prop forward ran the line. O’Reilly went on to conquer bigger fields and was the subject of a well-written biography, The Player, in 1994, by finance journalist Ivan Fallon. The blurb on the back quotes Henry Kissinger as saying: “If there is such a thing as a Renaissance man in business, that man is Tony O’Reilly.” I had not heard much about O’Reilly for many years and was unaware of his financial and health woes. Time to dig out a DVD of the 1959 Lions tour and see once again what a 23-year-old Tony O’Reilly could achieve on a rugby field.
Digby
Roar Guru
Thank you for the insight Chris.
Frenchy
Guest
Regrettably I never heard of this admirable man. Insolvency is a small matter, a lost game in the spectrum of an international rugby career, compared to what he has contributed to the Irish society. Unfortunately, no one can sidestep the elapsing time of our own life and for a man who has achieved so much, it is awful to think he may pass away one day without remembering his finest moments. Great article. Thank you.
nerval
Guest
Tony O'Reilly's rugby hero was the great Springbok wing, Tom Van Vollenhoven - the latter scoring a hat-trick of tries while playing directly opposite the Irishman in a Test v the Lions. I think, although I'm not sure, that O'Reilly even wrote a book about him. Van Vollenhoven later went on to become a legend in English rugby league with St Helens. An affecting article, Chris.
oldbarkerboy
Guest
SAW HIM ON WING FOR IRELAND MANY YEARS AGO ,THEN MET HIM TO SHAKE HAND IN PITTSBURGH WHEN HE RAN HEINZ. WAS POPULAR AS A GENTLEMAN & GREAT PLAYER. oldbarkerboy