Paddy Fitzpatrick, who died on August 16th aged 72, was one of Ireland's best known hoteliers who developed hotels in key tourist areas around the country and who pioneered expansion into the US. At his death, the family company comprised a chain of profitable hotels in Dublin, Bunratty, New York and Chicago.
Paddy Fitzpatrick was born in Dalkey, Co Dublin, on January 11th, 1930. His father, John Fitzpatrick, managed two public houses in Pimlico and the Coombe, and married Mary, the daughter of the owner. When the pubs were sold in the 1920s, the proceeds were invested in Guinness shares and Paddy Fitzpatrick used to joke that "we were all reared on Guinness dividends".
He went to school at Blackrock College, but left without doing the Leaving Certificate, fearing that he would fail Irish.
At 17, he went to work in the Gresham Hotel under manager Toddy O'Sullivan. He began, according to his own account, "peeling onions" and progressed to assistant manager. After nine years learning the trade, he was ready for change and accepted an offer from Brendan O'Regan to manage the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis. While professing admiration for his new boss's vision for a better Ireland, Paddy Fitzpatrick only stayed there 18 months and then moved to Wexford to manage the Talbot Hotel, owned by the Stafford family.
In 1955, he had married Eithne Dunne from Carlow, whom he admired while she was modelling in the Gresham Hotel. She was one of the models working for the Miriam Woodbyrne agency. They were to have five children, four sons and one daughter. All except one followed their father into the hotel business. Eithne, who died in 1993, played an active role as a director in promoting the fortunes of the Fitzpatrick group.
Paddy Fitzpatrick was to stay in Wexford for 14 years, a period he found fulfilling as he expanded the small 24-bedroom hotel into a grade A hotel with 120 bedrooms. He had an excellent relationship with the Staffords and acquired 25 per cent of the hotel.
He became fully involved in local life and worked to promote the Fishguard-Rosslare car ferry link and the Ferrybank Development Scheme. He was also director of the South-Eastern Regional Tourist Development Company and a council member of the Irish Hotels Federation and the Wexford Festival Opera, for which he encouraged "fringe" activities.
When his former employer, the Gresham Hotel, bought the Talbot, Paddy Fitzpatrick discovered that he was not being given the freedom to run it which he enjoyed under the Staffords. He decided to leave and join P.V. Doyle as a general manager and director. The Doyle group then consisting of the Montrose Hotel and the Green Isle Hotel. Under Paddy Fitzpatrick the chain grew to include the Skylon and the Tara Tower and the plans were afoot for the Berkeley Court and the Westbury.
However, Paddy Fitzpatrick now decided it was time to work for himself. One evening while having a drink with his wife in the bar of the Killiney Castle Hotel he decided he wanted to buy it. His first hotel was then a period mansion on Killiney Hill badly in need of renovation. He bought the hotel on nine acres for £140,000. Many of the rooms had dry rot so the hotel was closed and renovated.
It reopened 14 weeks later with nine bedrooms in service and gradually expanded and thrived. It later became known as the Fitzpatrick Castle to avoid confusion with the Killiney Court.
In 1980, his Killiney Construction Company run by his son Patrick built 24 apartments beside the hotel but the operation proved costly at first to the Fitzpatrick finances.
Earlier in 1977, he had bought the Shannon Shamrock which thrived on the US tourist trade. The loss-making hotel on 12 acres cost £180,000 and went into profit after 18 months of Fitzpatrick management. He planned to expand his operation in the Shannon area by taking over the Clare Inn in 1988 but the deal fell through . Instead he bought the Silver Springs Hotel in Cork. He soon tapped into the conference centre market with the construction of two centres at the Killiney and Cork hotels.
For relaxation from an absorbing business life, he played golf and enjoyed horseracing. He also loved to spend holidays with his family at Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow. When the caravan park at Jack's Hole came on the market 10 years ago, he bought it and greatly improved it by reclaiming land and protecting the beach. Earlier, he set up a subsidiary company called Castle Transport and Marketing Services which acted as general sales agent in Ireland for TWA, Gulf Air and Japan Air Lines.
He always had an ambition to expand his hotel business into the US and the chance came in 1991 when his son John, who was living in New York and was exploring various possibilities, found a suitable project. It was a hotel on Lexington Avenue which had been closed for six years. The Fitzpatrick Manhattan became the first Irish-owned hotel in New York, and indeed in the US. The penthouse suite would be occupied by Presidents Mrs Robinson and Mrs McAleese and the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, during visits to New York.
Six years later, a second hotel near Grand Central Station was acquired and refurbished. The Fitzpatrick company also got the contract to manage a third hotel in Manhattan.
Next came Chicago and the Fitzpatrick Hotel there cost $10 million simply to refurbish. It was opened officially by the Taoiseach in March of this year. For Paddy Fitzpatrick, now into his 70s, the acquisition of the Chicago hotel was an appropriate time to restructure the company and split it among his children.
Even in retirement, he continued to be active in the running of the Fitzpatrick Castle, his first hotel and in his native Dalkey, until the onset of what was to be a fatal illness. He kept up his links with Blackrock College and was a president of the past pupils' union. He also devoted much time and energy to the development of the DúLaoghaire area.
He married Nora Barnes in 1998.
He is survived by his wife Nora; daughter Eithne; sons John, Paul, Patrick and Tony and step-son, David; sisters Evelyn Flynn and Paula McQuillan. He was predeceased by his brother Billy.
Paddy Fitzpatrick: born 1930; died, August 2002