JOHN MURPHY:JOHN MURPHY, who has died aged 96, was a Kerry born entrepreneur who developed a hugely successful construction business in London that for decades employed many thousands of Irishmen who emigrated to Britain.
John Joseph Murphy was born in 1913 in Loughmark near Cahirciveen. He hitch-hiked to London in the 1930s and from such inauspicious beginnings, built the J Murphy and Sons brand, with its green-themed livery, into a major player within the UK construction sector. The Sunday Times Rich List recently estimated that his personal wealth stood at some £190 million. For all that, he will be remembered as a hard-working and generous man.His determination, coupled with a vast number of Irishmen looking for work in London, saw that empire grow steadily from a goods yard in Tufnell Park in north London to become one of the biggest employers in the civil engineering industry and a heavyweight among British construction firms.
At the time of his death, J Murphy and Sons amounted to some 18 companies across Britain with business interests also in Ireland and stretching as far as Greece and the Middle East.
The firm recently built the first major project of the London 2012 Olympics programme and is involved in upgrading London’s Victorian sewerage and completing the mile-long Stansted airport tunnel among its past projects.
John Murphy famously shunned the limelight. Despite his personal fortune, he apparently continued to visit the Tufnell Park site, his advancing years notwithstanding, taking breakfast with the workers there.
His firm prided itself on its standards, winning contracts on a reputation, developed by their patriarch, of delivering projects on time and to the highest standards. His daughter Caroline Murphy is today vice-chairman of the company.
In the 1970s, J Murphy and Sons was pursued by the Inland Revenue over tax evasion, specifically relating to the system of employment known as the lump, by which workers hired themselves out to the highest bidder. The company was fined £750,000 and several employees were jailed, though John Murphy was never charged.
He never splashed out on the trappings of a millionaire lifestyle. He was happy however to accept an Honorary Doctorate from UCC in 2001, in recognition of his standing as a benefactor to civil engineering at the university and as a major employer of its graduates.
He was elected as a Fellow by The Institution of Gas Engineers for services to the gas industry in 1989.
Politely referred to as ‘‘The Boss’’ in Murphy circles, the family he leaves behind, including wife Cathy, have been inundated with tributes by friends, colleagues and staff since his death. One former employee, Danny O’Sullivan also from Loughmark, worked for Murphy’s in London for eight years in the 1970s.
“John was a good man who leaves an important legacy behind him,” he said this week. “He has been a great employer for decades – particularly when it was hardest for Irishmen to find well-paid construction work and opportunities in London . . . He supported the Irish over here and as a result he supported the Irish back home – as most of the pay cheques he was writing were being sent home to our families.”
A family statement noted: “The company John started from scratch back in the 1930s now employs over 3,000 people, the majority of them Irish – he created this phenomenon. He built it and moulded it by the force of his will and character and instilled a sense of pride in his workforce for what they were building together.
“He gave them the right to hold their heads up when times were tough for the Irish, and they were proud to call themselves ‘Murphy men’. He was the original Murphy man and with him an era passes, we will not see his like again.”
A requiem mass will be held on Monday, May 18th, at 11am at London’s Brompton Oratory, and a funeral service will take place in Caherciveen, Co Kerry, on Thursday, May 21st.
John Murphy: born 1913; died May 7th 2009