News

Rory McIlroy and Pierce Brosnan among new entries on Irish rich list

Rory McIlroy is worth an estimated &pound;56 million and places 187th on the Irish rich list. Picture by Adam Davy, Press Association<br />&nbsp;
Rory McIlroy is worth an estimated £56 million and places 187th on the Irish rich list. Picture by Adam Davy, Press Association
 
Rory McIlroy is worth an estimated £56 million and places 187th on the Irish rich list. Picture by Adam Davy, Press Association
 

RORY McIlroy is one of the new entrants on the Sunday Times rich list, with the world number three golfer’s fortune listed as £56 million.

Other new names on the Irish rich list include actor Pierce Brosnan, raised in Co Meath, who is worth £60 million and Cathal Gaffney, who makes the cartoons Doc McStuffins, Bing and Octonauts and enters the list at £42 million.

The 20th annual Irish Rich List shows an overall 3.3 per cent rise in wealth. Irish high-fliers have seen their combined value grow by more than £1.8 billion to £56.5 billion in the past year.

The list shows eight “sterling billionaires” worth a combined £23.49 billion, and 12 “euro billionaires”.

On top of the “euro billionaire” list for the eighth year are Hilary Weston and her daughter Alannah. They represent the Ireland-born side of the £11 billion food and retailing family that controls Selfridges, Primark, Penneys, Brown Thomas and Associated British Foods.

Denis O’Brien is second on the list (£3.7 billion), ahead of John Dorrance (£1.86 billion), Dermot Desmond (£1.5 billion) and the late Lord Ballyedmond’s wife and family (£1.4 billion).

Martin Naughton’s electrical-appliance company Glen Dimplex was hit by China’s economic downturn, seeing him fall to ninth place (£991 million).

Other well-known names on the rich list include Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary (number 15, £708 million), Bono (number 21, £500 million), Michael Flatley (number 41, £210 million), Liam Neeson (number 111, £95 million) and Enya (number 112, £91 million).

The biggest riser on the list was Pearse Lyons, a Dubliner now based in Kentucky, whose Alltech animal feed group added £500 million in value, seeing his fortune surge to £1.5 billion.

Paul Coulson, chairman of Ardagh, dropped just below the billionaire level with the cancelled flotation of his global packaging group.

The richest under 30s are technology company Stripe founders Patrick and John Collison whose €1.47 billion fortune make them, at 27 and 25, the youngest and fastest billionaires in Irish history.

In the overall combined UK and Ireland list, Russian industrial tycoons David and Simon Reuben come out on top with a wealth of £13 billion. The queen comes in at 319th place with a wealth of £340 million.

A Sunday Times spokesperson said the list shows that "money is being created fairly evenly across the economy".

"Areas like information technology, medical equipment, manufacturing, specialist finance and agri-business generated most of the 32 new entrants. While construction and property are growing at nine per cent, they only contributed one new entrant".