Terry Willers

Who is Terry Willers?

Terry Willers was a noted cartoonist and animator. Willers was born in London but settled in Ireland. He spent most of his later life in Carrigower and for over 40 years in Rathdrum, both in County Wicklow. In 1992, Willers was the co-founder and chairman of the Guinness International Cartoon Festival, which ran for three years in Rathdrum. He was a winner of the Jacobs Award for his work for television.

Writing in the Irish Independent, Tom Mathews recalls, "Nobody who encountered Terry in full flight in his persona as Rathdrum's cartoon ambassador to the world is likely to forget him... Terry must have had three hands because despite having a cigarette in one and a glass in the other, he was always drawing on any surface that held still — even the walls of his beloved Cartoon Inn at Rathdrum village where so many of his exhuberand productions are still displayed." Mathews describes Willers as "a stylish and dapper dresser" who was never seen without a shirt and tie and "the sort of pastel blazer favoured by the gameshow host that he so resembled".