The newest recruit in a PR consultancy usually draws (is given) the short straw i.e. jobs at the coloured end of the stick. Thus, it was as a young and naïve account executive that I was always handed the task of garnering national media coverage for a minor, invitation golf competition called the McInerney Scotch Foursomes, hosted by Foxrock Golf Club.
This was a passion of Dan McInerney of the sponsor and important former client McInerney Properties. To the extent that if you failed to garner coverage for the company’s much more newsy and important AGM his attitude was benign – but national coverage was expected for the McInerney Scotch Foursomes.
I still have nightmares of arriving at the press reception to shrill cries from the Foxrock secretary, “Ronnie! Where’s the press?” (Probably an appropriate title for my autobiography).
I had to explain even back in those days that there was no correlation between press attendance and coverage – (although unfortunately there usually was in the case of the McInerney Scotch Foursomes).
An abiding memory of those times was the helpful advice Bill O’Herlihy gave me at one of the receptions on maximising coverage for the event. In the normal dog eat puppy world of PR, the fact that he would freely proffer invaluable advice to a rival PR agency was demonstration of the man’s generous spirit.
Sincere condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. RIP.
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