Winning formula moving with times
Lifestyle - A looming war, along with disease and food shortages were part of life when Donny Coyle set up Hygeia Chemicals in 1939. It has evolved through the decades, from a time of virtually no regulations to an era when safety is prioritised. Donny’s son John and current CEO John Byrne tell JUDY MURPHY how war and typhus dominated its early years and how the Galway business, which is synonymous with agriculture, is looking to the seashore for the future.
Our comfortable lives have been shaken to the core in recent times, as a pandemic, a war in Europe, massive inflation, potential food shortages and the constant shadow of global warming demonstrate how fragile our grip on prosperity and progress really is.
These circumstances give us a unique insight into the challenges faced by people just a couple of generations ago. In the 1930s, the threat of war in Europe meant that Ireland – which was much poorer than now – needed to become more self-sufficient in terms of food production. Not only that, but disease among humans was also an issue; in the early 1940s, the Conamara village of An Spidéal was closed off from the outside world due to an outbreak of typhus.
These were the circumstances that prevailed when Donny Coyle set up Hygeia Chemicals in Galway City in 1939.
Donny had originally come to Galway from Dublin, working as an agent for his family tea company. His area was the West of Ireland, including Galway, “which was tiny at the time”, as his son John recalls.
Donny had originally intended to study medicine but plans changed when his father died at a young age. However, he retained his keen interest in science and got involved with Cold Chon which had been set up in the late 1920s in Galway. Its remit included emulsifying tar, softening the substance so it could be applied to roads.
By the late 1930s, everyone knew a major war was on the horizon and the Department of Agriculture was working to increase grain production, so Ireland could “be as self-sufficient as possible”, says John Coyle.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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