BELFAST businessman Paddy McKillen, the patriarch of a family that built hugely successful interests in Ireland, London, France and the US, has died aged 99.
Mr McKillen, the founder of DC Exhausts, which began life on reclaimed marshland in Andersonstown, died peacefully at his adopted home in southern France, surrounded by family and friends.
The businessman founded and then built up his company before the start of the Troubles and during the turbulent years of the seventies and eighties.
DC Exhausts expanded across Ireland before the family sold the business for a reported £25m in the 1990s. His son Paddy is one of the most high profile developers on the islands.
Mr McKillen on Tuesday was described as an "inspiration" by the singer/songwriter Joby Fox, whose father worked with the west Belfast man at the Kennedy Way headquarters and in Dublin.
"Paddy is part of my DNA because I worked alongside him and my father," said Joby. "He was a big inspiration for me to aspire to great things."
He added: "He was such an affable character. He was a lovely, lovely man with such positive energy,
"Him and my father worked together, not just worked for him, and that was what he was like. And that goes down through the family, that lack of hierarchical approach and that inspired loyalty."
The Belfast singer recalled the stories of how nobody thought he could build his garage so close to marshland. Mr McKillen had the foresight to see it could happen and the drive to make it so, said Joby.
When the company was expanding in the early 1970s, Mr McKillen sent his son, Paddy, to Dublin to help build the business and to get away from the violence on the streets.
HIs successful and combative son built a property empire, maintaining the business after the 2008 financial crisis.
The younger McKillen successfully defended his interests in a London hotel group, which includes Claridges, following a long running legal clash with the Barclay Brothers. He also was involved in a largely successful legal battle with NAMA.
Grandson, also Paddy, and Matt Ryan’s Press Up Entertainment group recently announced plans to expand its business into Northern Ireland with plans for a new Dean hotel in Belfast.
Mr McKillen, described as a native of Belfast and formerly of Ballsbridge in Dublin, passed away at his home in Le Puy Sainte Reparade near Aix-en-Provence.
He was predeceased by his wife Peggy and survived by children, Mara, Mariad, Paddy, Colette, Anne, Monika, John, Catriona and Michaela, his sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, his grandchildren, great-grandchildren, extended family and friends in Belfast, Dublin, France and Los Angeles.
Requiem Mass will take place on Wednesday at Eglise Norte Dame de L'Assomption in Le Puy.
