It is doubtful if there is an Irish person alive who has not heard of Tayto, the company founded by Joe Murphy who died on September 28th aged 78.
Friends maintain he was the original "Spud Murphy", but whether he was or not, the man who invented the cheese and onion flavoured crisp certainly had a strong claim on the title. At heart he was a marketing man and his success in that role was indisputable.
Much of what he needed to know about business he learned in the family home as he grew up. His father, Thomas Murphy, had a small building business in Thomas Street, Dublin. His mother, Mary James (Molly) Sweeney, had a wallpaper and paint shop on the same street.
He was born on May 15th, 1923. He had three brothers and one sister. Living on the edge of the Liberties, it is no surprise that he was educated by the Christian Brothers in Synge Street, becoming yet another distinguished graduate of that remarkable establishment.
Those who knew him say he was fond of eating crisps but found the products on the market at the time rather dull. So, in 1954, he started his own crisp company, Tayto, in O'Rahilly's Parade off Moore Street with one van and eight employees, some of whom were to work for him for more than 40 years.
His great marketing coup was to invent the world's first cheese and onion flavour and put paid to the dull crisps of his childhood. The product flourished at home and abroad and within two years the business had moved to Mount Pleasant Avenue in Rathmines. In 1960, the company acquired an additional premises in Harold's Cross.
Joe Murphy's marketing flair led him to become one of the first sponsors of a Radio ╔ireann programme. He also rented space for a neon sign on one of the premier locations in Dublin at the junction of D'Olier Street and Westmoreland Street. The Tayto sign became one of the great landmarks of Dublin in the 1960s and 1970s.
He and his company were well known in the business abroad and in 1964 Beatrice Foods of Chicago bought a majority stake in Tayto. By the early 1970s Tayto had some 300 employees, most of them at its state-of-the-art factory in Coolock.
Tayto acquired the King Crisps company in 1972 and Joe Murphy developed unique and separate marketing and sales strategies for Tayto and King brands. However, he did not rest on his laurels. He continually sought ways to enhance the brand and by now the company was introducing new crisp flavours and snack products to the Irish market. Tayto was the first company to manufacture and market extruded snack products in Ireland. In 1981, Tayto acquired the Smiths Food Group factory at Terenure where a new and extended range of Tayto products was produced.
He married Bernadette (Bunny) Boylan in 1948 and they had five children; Yvonne, Joseph, Barry, Peter and Stephen. The family was reared in Glenageary.
If founding a company which became a household name was an achievement the same may be said of the fact that he and Bunny enjoyed a retirement of a quarter-of-a-century in Spain. That gave him ample opportunity to indulge his passion for golf, reading and writing. He was an avid reader and enjoyed writing without feeling the need for publication.
He is remembered by employees as a man who knew all his staff and was a pleasure to work with. They also remember him as a very funny man with a great line in jokes.
In a sense he came along at the right time. In the mid-1950s the entrepreneurial spirit which was to be nurtured in the 1960s by the Taoiseach Seβn Lemass was beginning to awaken. That said, though, there is no doubt that Tayto was born into a difficult economic period in Ireland's history. Emigration was rife, the country was seen largely as an agricultural one and years of protectionism had blunted the edge of Irish commerce. It was also a country in which quality often took second place to making do.
In that environment and that economy, Joe Murphy's love of marketing was just what was needed. His sort of flair was in short supply to an extent which can only be imagined by those who know only the marketing-savvy Ireland of today.
As one friend put it, "Joe Murphy was in search of excellence before the book was even written". That he built a brand which flourishes today and which has a quality image was, therefore, a very considerable achievement. Today the brand he created - now part of Cantrell & Cochrane - is the leader in its field in this country and one of Ireland's best-known brands. An entrepreneurial award scheme in his honour would be a fitting tribute.
Of his siblings Patricia, who lives in Toronto, survives him. Two brothers, Paddy and Thomas, died at an early age. His brother Jack, who took over the family business, also predeceased him.
Joe Murphy was the quintessential bon viveur. He was a showman, a shopaholic and above all a character. And yet he never lost sight of his origins and was always quick to embrace those who were less fortunate than himself.
Joe Murphy is survived by his wife and children and by his sister.
Joseph Murphy: born 1923; died, September 2001