RICH GET RICHER
How country’s wealthiest still boost balance despite worst cost-of-living crisis in 40 years
IT’S always said that money follows money. So even during the pandemic slump, Ireland’s richest were busy getting richer.
They were already the richest in the country, making their billions from running high-end department stores to brewing the country’s most iconic beer.
And now they’ve managed to accumulate even more cash during the worst cost-ofliving crisis in 40 years, the Sunday Times Rich List has revealed.
In fact, during a pandemic-induced economic slump which has left many individuals and businesses in a precarious financial
position, some of Ireland’s richest have increased their wealth by tens of millions over the past year.
Ireland’s wealthiest family, the Westons,
Ireland’s wealthiest family increased fortune by €3bn
went one step further, increasing their global retailing fortune by almost €3billion in the past 12 months to almost €16billion, a growth of more than 22%.
Dublin-born Alannah Weston, 50, was until recently the head of the Brown Thomas and Arnotts department stores. The Westons group, which
included the Selfridges store in London, sold last year for €4.7billion, a rise of more than 500% on the €700million they bought it for in 2003.
Alannah’s Dublin-born brother Galen, 49, heads the family’s Toronto-based food processing and distribution company George Weston Limited.
The Weston family also owns luxury food shop Fortnum & Mason and upmarket furniture
shop Heals, while Londonbased George Weston, 58, runs fast-fashion brand Penneys,
which trades as Primark outside Ireland as the US company of the same name holds the rights to the name abroad.
Meanwhile, another of Ireland’s richest managed to nearly double his wealth in the past year.
Belfast-born Stephen Fitzpatrick, 44, who founded energy supplier OVO Energy in 2009 and British aerospace manufacturer Vertical Aerospace in 2016, saw his fortune increase from €794millio to €1.576billion in the last 12 months.
Vertical Aerospace, which this year is expected to launch the first test flight for its electric four-seater aircraft VX4, listed on the New York stock exchange last year, helping Mr Fitzpatrick to secure his new billionaire status.
In joint ninth place is Ned Guinness, 52, the Kildare-born descendant of the famous
Arthur Guinness. In a year that saw many pubs closed during various lockdowns, Mr Guinness still managed to increase his wealth, which comes from property as well as brewing, by €78million to €1.18billion.
U2 are the top Irish entry on the Music Rich List with a joint fortune of €735million, up
€6million from last year.
The four lads come second only to Paul McCartney, 79, who added €53million to the fortune he shares with his American wife Nancy Shevell, 62, which now stands at more than €1billion. One Direction star Niall Horan, 28, from Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, is Ireland’s wealthiest young musician, worth €61million. He places 14th on the UK Young Rich List, which is made up of the 100 richest people aged 30 and under. However, not quite all of Ireland’s billionaires saw their fortunes increase over the last year, with Russian-born Igor and Dmitry Bukhman, who founded Dublin-headquartered online gaming company Playrix in 2004, seeing their joint fortune decrease by €179million to a still very respectable €6.471billion.
Now Israeli citizens, the Bukhman brothers have avoided the Ukraine war-related sanctions faced by other wealthy Russian businessmen – such as oligarch Roman Abramovich, whose €14billion fortune in 2021 is believed to have halved to €7billion, causing him to drop from eighth to 28th on the list.
David McMurtry, 82, cofounder of British engineering company Renishaw plc, experienced a significant decline in his wealth, and dropped nearly 70 places on the list.
The Clontarf-born businessman saw his fortune decrease by more than a third to €1.329billion.
Abramovich fell from 8th to 28th