Peter O’Reilly, doyen of Irish fly fishing who popularised the sport in a series of bestselling books – obituary

Peter O’Reilly, who has died aged 78, was the doyen of Irish fly-fishing, credited with popularising and illuminating the sport in his native country in a series of bestselling books.

O’Reilly, a game angling officer with Ireland’s Central Fisheries Board, was already a respected contributor to Trout Salmon magazine when, in the 1980s, he was approached by Merlin Unwin, the countryside books publisher in Ludlow, Shropshire, to write about the Irish loughs. O’Reilly was not keen (“I detest writing,” he insisted), but was eventually persuaded.

For two years he travelled the country in his spare time gathering his information. A particular problem, he told the journalist Daire Whelan, was accurately…