The southern Tayto for “Free Stayto” was established in O’Rahilly’s Parade, near Moore Street, in Dublin by Séamus Burke. He and eight other staff members are credited with inventing the classic cheese and onion crisp.

Meanwhile, up North, another businessman – Thomas Hutchinson – was wondering what to do with a 500-year-old Tandragee Castle in Co Armagh he had just acquired in 1955. He, too, hit upon the popularity of crisps as snacks and approached his crisp-making counterpart in Dublin to do a deal for the rights to the name Tayto and its recipes for outside the Republic.

And much like the rest of Irish history, the tale of the two Tayto companies throws up questions of shared and separate identities.

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