Bernard "Bunny" Carr (31 July 1927 – 19 September 2018) was an Irish television presenter. He presented shows such as '' Quicksilver'', ''Teen Talk'' and ''Going Strong'' on

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

. He later set up his own communications and public relations company.

Early life

Bernard Carr was born and raised in

Clontarf, Dublin Clontarf () is an affluent coastal suburb on the Northside (Dublin), Northside of Dublin in the city's List of Dublin postal districts, Dublin 3 postal district. Historically, there were two centres of population, one on the coast towards the c ...

.Mr. Charm School
IrishTimes.com; accessed 2 April 2017. His father, James Carr, was a civil servant who had served in the British Army in India. Bunny later recalled that his father hated his job and unfortunately died before he could retire. Bunny vowed never to be in the same position himself. The Carr family lived in Clontarf and he attended

O'Connell School The O’Connell School is a secondary and primary school for boys located on North Richmond Street in Dublin, Ireland. The school, named in honour of the leader of Catholic Emancipation, Daniel O’Connell, has the distinction of being the olde ...

where he was taught through the medium of Irish. One of the nuns at school gave him his nickname of "Bunny" on account of the size of his ears. Carr grew up with a love of amateur dramatics.

Career

After leaving school he became a bank clerk for the

Bank of Ireland Bank of Ireland Group plc () is a commercial bank operation in Ireland and one of the traditional Big Four Irish banks. Historically the premier banking organisation in Ireland, the bank occupies a unique position in Irish banking history. At ...

and was eventually posted to

Ballinasloe Ballinasloe ( ; ) is a town in the easternmost part of County Galway, Ireland. Located at an ancient crossing point on the River Suck, evidence of ancient settlement in the area includes a number of Bronze Age sites. Built around a 12th-centur ...

"because he spoke Irish". Once he had returned to Dublin, he realised that wanted to change track and successfully auditioned for RTÉ just before it launched in 1962. He later recounted that he had no strong desire to work in television but knew that he "just didn't want to work in the bank". On

, he hosted such shows as '' Quicksilver'' and ''Going Strong''. In 1964, he won a

Jacob's Award The Jacob's Awards were instituted in December 1962 as the first Irish television awards. Later, they were expanded to include radio. The awards were named after their sponsor, W. & R. Jacob & Co. Ltd., a biscuit manufacturer, and recipients ...

for his television series, ''Teen Talk''. He devised and presented the political interview programme ''The Politicians''. In 1973, Carr founded

Carr Communications Carr Communications is a public relations and training company in Ireland. It was founded in 1973 by the Irish television presenter Bunny Carr. Under Managing Director Terry Prone, the company expanded into public relations. The company has tra ...

a public relations and communications training company, the first of its kind in Ireland. The company grew to become one of the largest public relations and executive coaching firms in the country - it trained six of Ireland's Taoisigh (prime ministers). Carr also worked with the Catholic Communications Centre to train priests and nuns on how to make media appearances. Carr was involved with the

Gorta Self Help Africa is an international charity that promotes and implements long-term rural development projects in Africa. Self Help Africa merged with Gorta, in July 2014, and the combined entity was known for a period as Gorta-Self Help Afri ...

organisation in the early 1980s as a public supporter and fundraiser, and rumours circulated that he had absconded with funds. He left RTÉ in the mid 1980s to concentrate on his business and retired in 2004.

Personal life and death

Carr was married to Joan, who he noticed whilst she was climbing onto the roof of the pavilion to retrieve a ball at Sutton Tennis club. They had one son, Alan and two daughters, Carolyn and Philomena. She contracted polio during her pregnancy with Philomena, after having cleaned down Alan who fell into a former cess pit in the back garden. She was confined to an

iron lung An iron lung is a type of negative pressure ventilator, a medical ventilator, mechanical respirator which encloses most of a person's body and varies the air pressure in the enclosed space to stimulate breathing. It assists breathing when Musc ...

for the remaining seven months of the pregnancy and afterwards had to use a wheelchair. The couple lived in

Sutton, Dublin Sutton () is a residential suburb on the Northside, Dublin, Northside of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It occupies the tombolo which links Howth Head to the mainland, some of the lower slopes of Howth Hill, and a little of the adjacent ...

, before Joan died in 2005, after which Bunny lived alone. He had 11 grandchildren. In 1998 Carr suffered a heart attack and had cancer diagnosed by chance during the treatment. Carr was diagnosed with macular degeneration in 2011 and was registered blind. He died on 19 September 2018, aged 91 in Howth Hill Nursing Home in Dublin. His family requested that donations in his memory be made to a charity supporting sufferers of Pitt–Hopkins syndrome.

References

External links

A discussion of ''Quicksilver''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Carr, Bunny 1927 births 2018 deaths Irish game show hosts Irish public relations people Jacob's Award winners RTÉ television presenters Television personalities from Dublin (city) Polio survivors