On The Town:'Effervescent", "unstinting", "energetic" and "passionate" were some of the words used to describe Patrick J Murphy, recipient this week of the Business2Arts Award for Most Outstanding Business Contribution to the Arts in Ireland, at a special ceremony in Dublin Castle.
"He was involved long before the Celtic Tiger, back when art was not as fashionable as it is now," said Dermot Egan, former chairman of the National Concert Hall. "He gave his time unstintingly."
Murphy, a retired businessman who is currently art adviser to the Office of Public Works, bought his first painting, by Desmond Carrick RHA, for £40 in 1963.
"It was bulls in a landscape," he said. "It was powerful. It was a breakthrough. . . I've been passionately involved in all the arts since childhood."
Murphy was born in New Ross, Co Wexford and has now been collecting art for more than 40 years. He promoted Irish artists at home and abroad when he worked for Guinness, and he was involved in the development of Rosc, the international art exhibitions which ran from the 1960s to the 1980s.
"He's so energetic, he's bordering on the hyper," said businessman and former broadcaster Mike Murphy. "I've never seen anybody as passionate about art."
"He's effervescent. He exudes art," said Brendan O'Mara, chairman of Business2Arts. "He has contributed enormously to the development and preservation of contemporary art over the years."
Murphy was joined at the dinner by his family, including his wife, Antoinette, who runs the Peppercanister Gallery with their son, Bryan,who came along with brothers Mauriceand Ivanand their wives.