Fiona McHugh, former editor of The Sunday Times in Ireland and co-founder of the Fallon & Byrne restaurant and food hall, has died at the age of 57.
Ms McHugh was appointed editor of the Irish edition of the Sunday Times in 2000, becoming one of the first female newspaper editors in Ireland.
She led the title through a time of growing circulation until 2005, when she stepped down to establish Fallon & Byrne, the Dublin food business she founded alongside her husband Paul Byrne and restaurateur Brian Fallon.
The food hall, restaurant and wine cellar on Dublin’s Exchequer Street, which opened in early 2006 in a Victorian building formerly used as a telephone exchange, was inspired by New York delicatessens such as Dean & DeLuca, with the venture later described by Ms McHugh as a “leap of faith”.
Friends and colleagues of Ms McHugh, who had cancer, said she was a person of vision, style and warmth, who was known for both her strong editorial judgment and her excellent taste, and who was also fun to be around.
Nicola Byrne, a journalist and friend of Ms McHugh’s from their school days, said she was a brave person who “lit up a room” and changed both the Irish media business and the Dublin food scene.
“She was a really generous person who championed her friends and colleagues, especially younger colleagues, and she had great style and vision,” Ms Byrne said.
Ms McHugh was the daughter of Frank and Norrie McHugh. Her father served as a UN peacekeeper in missions across the Middle East, where she and her four siblings grew up.
She attended Loreto on the Green secondary school, where her contemporaries included the late RTÉ broadcaster Keelin Shanley. After studying English and philosophy at UCD, she became a journalist, working for Reuters, the Economist and Bloomberg before initially joining the Irish edition of the Sunday Times in 1998 as its business editor.
Ms McHugh, who succeeded Rory Godson as editor in 2000, oversaw the expansion of the title’s Irish coverage, leading it to record sales before pursuing a change in career.
Notwithstanding some financial difficulties during the post-Celtic Tiger downturn, Fallon & Byrne became an award-winning Dublin institution, hailed for the quality of both its dining experience and high-end retail offer, as well as its ambience, which benefited from Ms McHugh’s eye for detail as managing director.
She and Mr Byrne, a property developer, later exited the business, selling their 45 per cent stake in 2020 shortly after its loss-making outlet in Rathmines shut down after three years. The couple opened another restaurant, Lenehans Bar & Grill, on the site of the old Lenehans hardware shop in Rathmines in 2019, though it closed in 2022.
“She was a very popular person, she was very good-natured and she was very generous,” said Frank Fitzgibbon, who worked alongside Ms McHugh at the Sunday Times and succeeded her as Ireland editor.
Ms McHugh was trusted by London-based executives at the Rupert Murdoch-owned news group to lead “some very big projects” during her time at the newspaper, Mr Fitzgibbon said, adding that the legacy of Fallon & Byrne on Exchequer Street as a “really attractive addition” to Dublin continues today.
She is survived by her husband and their three children, Kate, Rory and Jack.
