Flying to the moon – because billionaires go the extra mile

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

There was a story told of a rich Irish businessman who found a way to demonstrate the size of his wealth – and it may be apocryphal, and therefore defamatory, so we won’t mention the billionaire by name.

Suffice to say that said billionaire was generous to a fault when it came to entertaining his friends, always treating them to the finest of food and the best wine – only he restricted his guess to the second-best bottles of wine.

Because he, and he alone, had the dearest one. And he would encourage the wine waiter to make no secret of that fact.

So even if the rest of the table were enjoying a €5,000 bottle of something from before World War II, our friend would top that with one of the ones fashioned out of water by Jesus at the wedding feast in Cana.

It was just to demonstrate that, even in the world of the mega-rich, there was still a line between the haves and those who have even more of it.

Two other wealthy Irishmen, Tony O’Reilly and Denis O’Brien – neither of whom was involved in the wine story – once met to try and sort out their differences over Independent Newspapers.

But according to Matt Cooper’s brilliant biography of O’Reilly, it didn’t get off to the best of starts – because Denis accused Tony of deliberately offering him a chair that was lower down than his host’s . . . therefore putting him at a disadvantage from the get-go.

In the end, chairs of equal height were found so that these titans of industry could look each other in the eye.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App

Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.

Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite  HERE.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.