Joseph Murphy 1923-2001
JOSEPH MURPHY, founder of Tayto crisps, was born beside the Liberties in Dublin, one of three sons and one daughter of builder Thomas Murphy and his wife, Molly (née Sweeney), who owned a wallpaper and paint shop on Thomas Street. He was educated at Synge Street CBS before embarking on a series of business ventures, including the importation and sale of such products as Ribena blackcurrant cordial and ballpoint pens.
In 1954 he started the Tayto company, making potato crisps in ORahillys Parade, near Moore Street. Together with one of his eight employees, Seamus Burke, he invented cheese and onion crisps while working at a kitchen table, experimenting with ideas for flavours. The crisps were launched on the market using a single delivery van and, later, using a deal involving the Findlater family’s stores and distribution network, ensuring that the product was available throughout Ireland. So popular were the new crisps that the company moved first to a new premises at Mount Pleasant Avenue and then, in 1960, to Harolds Cross. In 1964 Chicago-based company Beatrice Foods bought a major stake in Tayto and, as the company continued to thrive in the early 1970s, it opened a factory in Coolock, employing more than 300 people. In 1972 the King Crisps brand was acquired, and in 1981 the Smith’s Food Group factory in Terenure was bought and used to develop a new range of Tayto products.
Murphy placed great emphasis on the development of innovative marketing ideas. A huge neon sign by OConnell Bridge, advertising Tayto, was famous in Dublin for many years, and Tayto had a popular sponsored programme at lunchtime on Radio Éireann, illustrating Murphy’s flair for selling his product.
He was a notable figure in Dublin social life for many years and was renowned for his humour and showmanship, and as a bon viveur. He replaced his Rolls Royce car with a new model every second year, and was famed for his capacity to shop, not least for cashmere sweaters.
In 1983 he sold his share in Tayto and moved to Marbella, Spain, where he lived for the remainder of his life, playing golf five days a week and sailing his boat from Puerto Banus.
He married Bernadette (“Bunny”) Boylan in 1948; they had five children, and lived for many years in Glenageary, Co Dublin.
From the Royal Irish Academy's Dictionary of Irish Biography. See dib.ie for more details
