Tony O'Reilly

Ireland

Between 1955 and 1970 O'Reilly won 29 caps for Ireland. His Five Nations career of 15 years, 23 days is the longest in history, a record shared with fellow Ireland player Mike Gibson. He made his senior international debut, aged just 18, against France on 22 January 1955. He scored his four tries for Ireland against France on 28 January 1956; against Scotland on 25 February 1956; against Wales in 1959; and against France in 1963. He made his final appearance for Ireland on 14 February 1970, after a six-year absence from the national team, against England. This final appearance was an 11th-hour replacement, denying Frank O'Driscoll — father of Brian, Ireland's most-capped player—what would prove to be his only chance at a Test cap.

British and Irish Lions

O'Reilly toured twice with the British Lions, on their 1955 tour to South Africa and their 1959 tour to Australia and New Zealand. He made his debut for the Lions on 26 June 1955, scoring two tries against a Northern Universities XV. He played 15 games during the 1955 tour, scoring 16 tries. This included hat-tricks against a North Eastern Districts XV on 20 July and Transvaal on 23 July. He also played in all four Tests against South Africa, making his Test debut on the right wing before a crowd of 95,000 at Ellis Park on 6 August. He scored a try in the Lions 23–22 victory. He scored another try in the fourth Test on 24 September. On the 1959 tour, he played a further 23 games and scored 22 tries.…

O'Reilly went from college to work as a management consultant for Weston-Evans in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire; he earned £200 annually, which was a very good salary by the then Irish standards. While there, he continued his rugby career, with Leicester. His work included cost accounting and time-and-motion studies, in industries ranging from shoe-making to pottery. He then moved to Sutton's of Cork, selling agricultural products, coal and oil.

Irish semi-state sector

O'Reilly joined An Bord Bainne, the Irish Dairy Board, in 1962, as General Manager, and developed the successful Kerrygold "umbrella brand" for Irish export butter. In 1966 he became Managing Director of the Irish Sugar Company. He soon developed a joint venture for freeze-drying food with the H. J. Heinz Co.

Heinz

In 1969, after discussions with the then Taoiseach Jack Lynch, who offered him a post such as Minister for Agriculture if he would stay, O'Reilly joined Heinz. There he made his name in international business, becoming managing director of the Heinz subsidiary in the UK, its largest non-US holding and the source of half of the group's profit. He moved to the company HQ in Pittsburgh in 1971 when he was promoted to senior vice-president for the North America and Pacific region. In 1973, R. Burt Gookin and Jack Heinz made him COO and President. He became CEO in 1979 when Mr. Gookin, then vice-chairman and chief executive officer, retired. He became chairman of Heinz in 1987,…

Family

O'Reilly was first engaged in 1958, to Dorothy Connolly, whom he had met in 1954, with the marriage planned for 1959. He met his first wife, Australian secretary and pianist Susan M. Cameron, the daughter of a wealthy Australian mining figure in whose name he endowed a professorship at UCD for at least a decade, in 1959 in Australia, after she was suggested as a social contact when he was touring for rugby. After courting her when she moved to London, they married in 1962. He had six children with her, born from 1963 to 1966: Susan Wildman, Anthony Cameron O'Reilly (generally "Cameron"), Justine O'Reilly, Gavin O'Reilly, Caroline Dempsey, and St John Anthony ("Tony Junior"); the last three are triplets. All three boys were involved in family business interests, while the daughters are not known to be, the eldest being a qualified pilot, the second a lawyer and the third a full-time mother. The eldest daughter took a bachelor's degree at Yale, and a master's degree in history at Oxford. All the O'Reilly children married and there are 19 grandchildren. The youngest daughter, Caroline, was married at the restored Church of St. Mary at Castlemartin Estate on 1 June 1991, while eldest child, Susan, married investment banker Tarik C. Wildman (1959–) on 14 August 1993 before an Episcopal dean at the same church. Gavin O'Reilly married Alison Doody there some years later. The O'Reillys separated in the late 1980s, and Susan O'Reilly settled in London, in a house…