Insight Consultants and O’Herlihy Communications (OHC) are to merge their two companies with Insight director Michael Parker (left) as managing director and OHC founder Bill O’Herlihy as “senior director”. No specific details about the deal were disclosed. The agency said it will provide a range of PR services from Insight’s offices in Sandyford Industrial Estate.
Insight Consultants was founded in 2006 by Parker and former Sunday Press editor Michael Keane, following their departure from what was then Fleishman-Hillard Saunders, now FleishmanHillard. Parker is well known for his public affairs and lobbying work, not least in relation to Rehab and the controversies surrounding the body’s former CEO, Angela Kerins.
Other Insight clients include Beacon Hospital, Dublin City Council, WEEE, the Tall Ships Races 2012, the Asthma Society of Ireland, Keogh’s Crisps and Niall Fortune’s Eddie Rocket’s.
OHC was first established by Bill O’Herlihy as Public Relations of Ireland (PRI) in 1973. It soon became one of Ireland’s top PR agencies handling clients such as British Airways, Ford, the Irish Permanent Building Society, Rehab (under Frank Flannery), McDonald’s, Parc and VHI. Eileen Gleeson, Fintan Drury and the late Ann O’Callaghan worked at PRI.
O’Herlihy, a Cork man, began his career in journalism and went on to work as a reporter with Ted Nealon on the RTE current affairs show, Seven Days. His abiding interest in TV saw him become a household name as the anchor for RTE’s coverage of English football, Euro and World Cup tournaments, alongside John Giles, Liam Brady and Eamon Dunphy.
A strong Fine Gael supporter, O’Herlihy worked with former PJ Carroll PR boss Pat Heneghan and Frank Flannery as ‘handlers’ for party leader Garret FitzGerald. O’Herlihy and Heneghan later teamed up at PRI but the arrangement did not work out well and the pair went their separate ways. His daughter, Jill O’Herlihy, helped run OHC in recent years.
Among OHC’s most recent wins was the Aviva Stadium.
