Former chairman of Sweepstakes dies at 74

The former chairman of the Irish Hospitals Sweepstakes, Mr Paddy McGrath, has died aged 74. Mr McGrath, also a former chairman of Waterford Glass and for decades one of the country's best-known businessmen, had been ill for some time.

He was a leading figure in the horse-racing world, and a director of a number of Catholic newspapers. But he was probably most famous for his involvement with the Sweep, the controversial and hugely successful lottery which helped fund Irish hospitals for half a century.

The sweepstakes and the McGrath family's once-considerable business empire were founded by his father Joe, a 1916 veteran, member of the first Dβil, friend of Michael Collins, and cabinet minister.

From its inception in 1930, the sweepstakes had questionable legal status. Overseas sales - some 90 per cent of the total - were effectively illegal, and the 1933 legislation governing the scheme appears to have been framed to mask the system of backhanders required to distribute tickets in the US and Canada.

In a 1978 RT╔ documentary, shelved at the time because of fears about job losses at the sweepstakes company, Canadian police claimed that only about 30 per cent of ticket proceeds reached Ireland.

Mr Paddy McGrath took over the scheme after his father's death in 1966 and chaired the Irish Hospitals Trust until 1987. The arrival of the National Lottery marked the end of the line for the sweepstakes.

But the writing had been on the wall for some time, as Mr McGrath himself told Ivor Brown in the latter's book, In Good Company: "What really began to kill the Sweep was the prolonged postal strike of 1979. We lost 40per cent of our overseas business, because the local post offices would send the tickets back - they were not accepting anything for Ireland. We never recovered from that."

In 1950, Mr McGrath married Ms Anna Burke, a P.E. teacher with whom he would have four sons and a daughter. That same year, the McGrath family became involved in the ailing Waterford Glass company, where Paddy would also succeed his father in the chair.

The Irish cut-glass tradition was long dormant at that time, but the company hired 80 Czech, Belgian and Italian cutters and blowers and gave them Irish apprentices. The business struggled early on, unable to generate significant export sales in the US, until the Altman's department store signed an exclusive deal and Waterford Glass was on the way to becoming one of the world's most famous brand names.

Mr McGrath's other directorships included the Bank of Ireland and the Investment Bank of Ireland. He was a member of Seanad ╔ireann from 1974 to 1978. He was made a freeman of the city of Waterford, and among other honours he was a Knight Commander of the Order of St Gregory the Great.

He also told Ivor Brown: "The main thing about the McGrath empire, as you call it, was not essentially how much more money you could make, but how many jobs you could give."