THE richest person in Northern Ireland is Lady Ballyedmond, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List.
As deputy chairwoman of Norbrook Laboratories, Lady Ballyedmond (Mary Haughey) is ranked as the 135th richest person in the UK, with an overall wealth of £1.247 billion.
She is the only billionaire from the north among 171 across the UK.
However, figures released in the list reveal her family's wealth has decreased by £98m within the last two months.
The 73-year-old inherited her late husband Eddie's veterinary pharmaceutical firm after he died in a helicopter crash in 2014. He founded the company in 1969.
The 2021 Sunday Times Rich List charts the fortunes of the 250 richest people in the UK.
Martin Naughton, owner of Irish based consumer electrical goods firm GlenDimplex, is recorded as the second richest man in Northern Ireland.
He started Glen Electric in 1973 with a small manufacturing facility employing just 10 people in Newry.
According to the latest rich list, the 82-year-old lost his billionaire status over the last year, losing £300m during the pandemic.
The Co Louth-born industrialist now sits with a combined wealth of £858m.
Veterans Irish rockers U2 also feature on this year's list with a collective worth of £620 million, up £37 million from last year.
The list revealed that there are now a record 171 billionaires in the UK, with Ukranian-born Sir Leonard Blavatnik topping the pile as the richest.
The number of billionaires jumped by 24 per cent, in stark contrast with the wider economic turmoil of the pandemic which saw millions enter furlough and the rate of unemployment lift to its highest in almost five years.
Robert Watts, compiler of the rich list, said: "The global pandemic created lucrative opportunities for many online retailers, social networking apps and computer games tycoons.
"The fact many of the super-rich grew so much wealthier at a time when thousands of us have buried loved ones and millions of us worried for our livelihoods makes this a very unsettling boom."
