Lend us a fiver.
While the majority of us are eagerly counting the days until that glorious moment when our bank balance updates itself on payday, there’s always a few people with a vault of gold, just like Scrooge McDuck, and are able to spend like there’s no tomorrow.
We’re not jealous at all.
The Sunday Independent have published their annual rich list and it seems that 2015 has been a good one for Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary because he has become Ireland’s newest billionaire after his companies’ shares increased by 30% last year.
There are 14 other Irish billionaires on the list with the Mistry Family (€14.9bn.), the Weston Family and Texas-born equity mogul John Grayken all making the list. Denis O’Brien remains Ireland’s richest native-born entrepreneur, with a fortune estimated at over €5bn while Pearse Lyons, John Magnier and John Dorrance make up fifth, sixth and seventh place respectively. JP McManus’ is one place behind them while John and Patrick Collison also made the grade after their online payments firm Stripe attracted a massive $5bn valuation from Visa.
Property investors Johnny Ronan and Seamus Ross are also making their debuts on the rich list.
2015 has been a profitable one for the fortunes of Ireland’s celebrities and athletes also. Rory McIlroy is the richest sports star on the list with €99 million currently sitting in his bank account and Robbie Keane is doing very well for himself in LA also, the former Liverpool, Spurs and Leeds striker has €38 million to spend.
U2 (€755m), Niall Horan, Liam Neeson, Van Morrison, Michael Fassbender (€35m), Pierce Brosnan (€51m), Bob Geldof, Louis Walsh (€32m), Graham Norton (€34m) and Colin Farrell (€31m) have also made the list.
