Founder of Fallon and Byrne, Fiona McHugh, dies aged 57

Tributes have flooded in for the founder of the popular Dublin food hall and restaurant.

Tributes have poured in for the Rathgar native who passed away yesterday, March 12, following a long illness.

Before opening the iconic Dublin food hall and restaurant, Fiona was the Irish editor of the Sunday Times newspaper.

She broke the largest story in Irish corporate history, when she published the details of Irish Life’s merger with Irish Permanent in 1998.

In 2006, she and her husband Paul, alongside restaurateur Brian Fallon, put their plans for a New York-style food emporium into place when they opened Fallon and Byrne on Exchequer Street in Dublin.

The couple exited the business in 2020, having opened a restaurant by then in an old hardware shop in Rathmines, which unfortunately closed in 2022 due to rising costs.

Tributes have been flooding in online, with Fiona being described as 'good natured' and 'generous'.

Many friends and colleagues have shared their memories, describing her as a 'super journalist'.

She is survived by her husband and three children.

Fiona will be reposing on Friday evening from 5pm - 8pm at her family home.

Her funeral mass will take place on Saturday morning at 10am in the Church of the Three Patrons, Rathgar followed by cremation at Victorian Chapel, Mount Jerome Crematorium, Harold's Cross.