Murphy death not to affect Flood findings

The millionaire businessman, Mr Joseph Murphy snr, has died before the Flood tribunal can complete its investigations into a £30,000 payment by his firm to Mr Ray Burke in June 1989.

However, his death is unlikely to have any bearing on Mr Justice Flood's final report as none of the outstanding matters still under investigation relates directly to Mr Murphy.

Mr Murphy (83) died on Wednesday at his home in the Channel Island of Guernsey after a two-year battle with cancer. He was buried on Friday after a private ceremony attended by family and friends.

The payment by Joseph Murphy Structural Engineering to Mr Burke, allegedly to procure planning permission for lands owned by Mr Murphy in north Dublin, led to the establishment of the Flood tribunal in 1997.

Last year Mr Murphy gave evidence to the tribunal in Guernsey, having been pronounced too unwell to travel to Dublin.

Mr Murphy became embroiled in the affair after the man who delivered the JMSE payment, the former managing director of JMSE, Mr James Gogarty, made public his allegations of corruption.

Mr Murphy and Mr Gogarty, born within six months of each other in 1917, were friends for many decades but fell out over the terms of Mr Gogarty's pension settlement.

The central question Mr Justice Flood will have to determine is whether Mr Murphy was aware of, or even involved in, the Burke payment or whether, as he has always maintained, he knew nothing of it.

At the time Mr Murphy was in his 70s and living in Guernsey.

Mr Murphy was born John Murphy in Cahirciveen, Co Kerry, but changed his name to Joseph when he went to England. This was because his older brother, also a multimillionaire, had changed his name from Joseph to John when he went to London.

Both Mr Murphy and Mr Gogarty served as reserve gardai in the 1930s but left the force to become involved in the construction industry.

Shortly before the second World War, Mr Murphy emigrated to Britain and worked as an unskilled labourer. With his brother, John, he formed a subcontracting business which grew quickly. They split in the late 1950s, and Mr Joseph Murphy set up a cable-laying business.

Hard work and a reputation for toughness brought Mr Murphy enormous business success. By the late 1960s he was a multimillionaire. For tax reasons he moved to Bermuda, the Bahamas and Ireland, before settling finally in Guernsey in 1976.

In the 1990s Mr Murphy's health faded, and his son, Mr Joseph Murphy jnr, became more actively involved in the running of his companies.

After his second wife, Una, died he became a virtual recluse. He is survived by Joseph jnr and a daughter, Angela.