‘I needed to find out who I really was’

He’d created Campbell Catering and saved Bewleys by the time he was 50. Then Patrick Campbell left it all to fulfill his life’s ambition asan artist, writes Alan O’Riordan

MOST people would have been content to have achieved by their early 50s what Patrick Campbell had: the creator of a successful business, Campbell Catering, which employed 5,000 people, and the saviour of another, Bewleys, which he expanded from an ailing café into a multinational tea and coffee supplier. Campbell wanted more: to be an artist.

Flash forward 15 years, and Campbell, at 70, can look back on a successful second act in his life. He shows regularly in Ireland, Britain, Italy and America, and was asked to sculpt a bust of Mary McAleese during her presidency.