A man with a very tasty idea
QUESTION Who was the first successful entrepreneur to emerge from Ireland?
THE first modern-style entrepreneur in Ireland was Joe ‘Spud’ Murphy, who created the Tayto brand of crisps in 1954.
Born in 1923, he was 31 years old at the time. His father had owned a small building business in Dublin, while his mother owned a paint and wallpaper shop, so business was clearly in his genes.
Joe was educated by the Christian Brothers at Synge Street, just off the South Circular Road.
He left school at 16 and his first job was behind the counter in Fox’s cigar and cigarette shop in Lower Grafton Street, Dublin. However, he didn’t stay long, as his determination to become an entrepreneur soon took over.
While he was still a teenager, he rented a small office in Grafton Street and began looking for gaps in the market that he could fill.
His first success came when he started importing Ribena during the Second World War.
Then immediately after the war, when the newly invented Biro pen became available, he started importing those, again with great success. But not all his plans worked out; during the Emergency, he had planned to import cheap cigarettes from what was then Rhodesia, but when peace came, that particular idea was no longer feasible.
Joe’s big idea was the most successful, Tayto crisps. He started the firm in 1954, working from cramped premises at O’Rahilly’s Parade, just off Moore Street in central Dublin.
He started with eight employees and one van.
Joe had become addicted to crisps, but the only ones available in Ireland were plain brands, with twists of salt, imported from Britain. Crisps weren’t made in Ireland. An employee of Joe’s, Séamus Burke, working on his kitchen table, developed a cheese and onion flavour, the first time that crisps had been flavoured.
The firm started making these new-fangled crisps and Joe did a deal to get distribution.
He arranged with Findlaters, which then had just over 20 upmarket grocery and wine stores, for them to sell these new-style crisps in their shops. Findlaters also employed many commercial travellers who sold their products to other retail outlets and Findlaters’ travellers were soon carrying this new brand of crisps. The real genius of Joe Murphy was in marketing. His firm became one of the first to sponsor programmes on the old Radio Éireann and in the centre of Dublin, he had a huge neon sign for Tayto put up, which became one of the bestknown advertising symbols in Dublin in the 1960s and 1970s.
Even his children were roped in: they arrived at school with supplies of pens and rulers all with the Tayto logo, which they gave out to their fellow pupils.
By the 1960s, the Tayto firm was so successful that Joe had bought a Georgian mansion on the outskirts of Dublin.
He started driving a Rolls Royce car, which he replaced every two years. He was so generous with his tips that doormen at hotels in Dublin and London scrambled for the privilege of parking his car.
He was so wealthy that the then taoiseach, Seán Lemass, frequently mentioned Joe Murphy as the very epitome of Irish entrepreneurial success.
Just ten years after he had founded Tayto, Joe Murphy sold a majority stake to an American firm, Beatrice Foods from Chicago, although he continued to run the business. In 1972, he bought the rival crisp company, King Crisps, and Tayto also became the first company in Ireland to make extruded snacks.
In 1983, he sold his stake in Tayto and retired to Spain, where for the next 18 years, he and his family lived in Marbella. He was passionate about golf and played most days, although he was never able to bring his handicap below 24. He died in 2001, aged 78. Tayto itself went through various changes of ownership, but in 2006, Largo Foods bought the company from Cantrell & Cochrane. A more recent highlight was the opening of the Tayto theme park, near Ashbourne, Co. Meath. Incidentally, the Tayto company in the North has no connection with the southern Tayto, but the northern firm is licensed to use the Tayto brand name.Today, Tayto remains one of the best-known brands in Ireland and the man who started it all is remembered as the first modernstyle entrepreneur in Ireland.
J.P. Kelly, Cork.
QUESTION Were the Incas a single empire or various tribes?
THE Inca civilisation flourished in ancient Peru between AD 1400 and 1533. Their empire extended from Ecuador in the west, north to Santiago and south to Chile, making it the largest in the world at that time.
The Inca Empire subjugated and assimilated Andean tribes adapted to plains, mountain, desert and tropical jungle habitats. An efficient bureaucracy made it one of the most tightly controlled empires ever known.
According to tradition, the Inca originated in the village of Paqaritampu, 24km south of Cuzco in Peru. The founder of the dynasty, Manco Capac, led the tribe to settle in Cuzco, which became its capital. The royal playground of Machu Picchu, the most famous expression of Inca power, was established in the 15th century.
Until the reign of the fourth emperor, Mayta Capac, in the 14th century, there was little to distinguish the Inca from many other tribes inhabiting small domains throughout the Andes.
Under Mayta Capac, the Inca began to expand, attacking and looting the villages of neighbouring peoples and extracting tribute. Under the next emperor, Capac Yupanqui, the Inca extended their influence beyond the Cuzco valley. Under Viracocha Inca, the eighth emperor, they established garrisons among the settlements of the peoples they had conquered.
Inca rule was based on interlocking units. The Sapa (unique) Inca was absolute ruler whose word was law. Revered as a god, he was also known as Intip Churin or Son of the Sun. His right-hand man was the high priest, Willaq Umu.
The Incas had a decimal system of mathematics, and this was reflected in subsequent tiers of government. At the top was the ruler and ten kindred groups of nobles called panaqa. Next in line came ten more kindred groups, more distantly related to the king, and then a third group of nobles not of Inca blood, but who had been made Incas as a privilege.
However, the most important political, religious and military roles belonged to the male Inca elite. They were called ‘the orejones’ or ‘big ears’ by the Spanish because they wore large ear spools to indicate their status. The empire was split into four quarters or suyu each with a governor.
Penelope Daniels, Oxford.
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