Lir Chocolates co-founder Connie Doody dies aged 76

Connie Doody, the pioneering Irish businesswoman who cofounded the confectionery company Lir Chocolates, has died aged 76. Ms Doody died on Saturday following an illness and was buried in Dublin on Tuesday morning.

She cofounded Lir Chocolates in her kitchen, along with former Fianna Fáil senator, Mary White, in the teeth of a recession in 1986. It went on to become a highly successful food exporter, employing up to 250 staff and, at its height, generating annual revenues of up to €28 million.

Ms Doody, who originally hailed from Roscommon, was a late convert to entrepreneurship and did not start the business until she was 40. Originally, she had worked in the civil service and also as a teacher.

In the 1980s she was living with her family in Dundrum, south Dublin, when she joined a community group that promoted local business. There she met Ms White and they started what would become one of Ireland’s best known indigenous chocolatiers. Ms White has said going into business with Ms Doody was “one of the best decisions I ever made”.

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The business originally traded from Dublin’s East Wall and later moved to a large premises in Navan, Co Meath. It makes its own brand of luxury chocolates, as well as private label chocolates for retailers such as Dunnes Stores. It has also had a long association with Diageo, which makes popular chocolates flavoured with its Baileys liqueur.

Ms Doody and Ms White relinquished control of Lir in 2007 when it was sold to UK group, Zetar, in a deal estimated to be worth up to €8 million. Zetar was later taken over by German group, Zertus, which continues to own and run Lir in Meath. Ms Doody stayed deeply involved with the business until late in her life, and remained a director of Lir Chocolates until she stepped down in the summer of 2020.

In the years before her retirement, she continued to work two days per week for Lir as a technical director and the company’s in-house “chocolate guru”. She was known for her passion and enthusiasm for the company’s products and, in a 2017 interview with The Irish Times, she conceded that her favourite chocolate was a praline.

Among the recent tributes to her on RIP.ie following her death was one from Jennifer English, the global brand director of Baileys. She described Ms Doody as a “great food innovator [who] built a multimillion-euro business”.

Ms Doody died over the weekend at Our Lady’s Hospice, Harold’s Cross, Dublin. She is survived by her daughters Sarah and Claire, her son Richard, her sister Rosarie and her nine grandchildren.