His parents were Thomas Roche, a cattle dealer, and Kathleen Burns, a former school teacher; they had been married in 1916.
After the war came to an end, Roche joined Monkstown RFC, before putting rugby on hold to work as a sales representative in Limerick.
[2] During the 1950s, Tommy Roche held the position of President of Mullingar R.F.C., and during his tenure, the club won the Midland league for the first time.
He was a friend of the singer Joe Dolan, another Mullingar native, and he was said in the latter's official biography to be the "possessor of one of the most famous stutters in Ireland".
[2][3] Tommy Roche died at the age of 80 in May 1999, in Saint Francis Private Hospital, Mullingar, after a long illness.