Galway’s richest boast a combined €1.4bn fortune

Galway brothers Luke and Brian Comer are among the richest men in Ireland, with a wealth of €675 million.

They are among fourteen individuals and families either from Galway or currently living here, who have a combined fortune of just under €1.4 billion.

The Comers are former plasterers from Glenamaddy and feature in 16th place in the ‘Ireland’s Rich List 2014’, published by the Sunday Independent at the weekend.

However, there are also notable omissions from the Rich List, including Supermac’s chief Pat McDonagh (valued by the rival Sunday Times at €146m), Thomas McDonogh (of the McDonogh Group valued at €86m) and John Concannon of Tuam-based plastics firm JFC (valued at €41m).

The Comer brothers – the main backers of the new Galway FC League of Ireland team – earned their fortune by developing properties in the UK in the 1980s, before buying an extensive portfolio of office blocks, almost 30 shopping centres and hotels in the UK and Germany.

The proceeds from selling-off some of their assets have been pumped back into Ireland over the past two years, and their purchases in Galway include the ‘Odeon syndicate’ site in Eyre Square, the Connacht Hotel on the Dublin Road, the former Corrib Great Southern Hotel, the Kingston Hall and Silver Seas apartment developments in Knocknacarra, Bun na Leaca in Newcastle and Howley Square in Oranmore.

They are now valued at €675m – that’s up €300m on last year.

John Flaherty from Athenry, who has the majority shareholding in C&F Tooling is at No 113, with a wealth of €95 (up €30m). Sales for the company have more than trebled to €139m since he moved into wind turbines and renewable energy, and he now employs 1,350 people.

The Smyth brothers – Anthony, Pádraig, Thomas and Liam – are at No 126 with an estimated wealth of €82m (up €7m). The family is originally from Claremorris, but is firmly established in Galway since the early 1990s. They own around 50 toy shops in Ireland and the UK, as well as having property investments and owning McSwiggans bar on Eyre Street.

Padraic and Martin McHale, who own McHale Engineering farm machinery company in Mayo, are at No 145 with €75m. Padraic lives in Clonbur with his wife, and the two recently bought the former Connacht Laundry site in the ‘West’ area of the city to be redeveloped into a hotel.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.