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Canada's CBC said the following about Hilary Weston: Born just outside Dublin in 1942, Weston was the eldest of five children of a middle-class appliance salesman. She was the family's Cinderella, beautiful and clearly destined for greatness. Her father died just before she became one of Ireland's top fashion models - her face on every billboard and magazine cover. Then her mother developed multiple sclerosis, and Weston became the surrogate parent to the rest of the children. It was a heavy burden to shoulder, a burden made easier by the arrival of her own Prince Charming, Canadian Galen Weston, who had come to Ireland to start a chain of self-service supermarkets. They were married after three years of courtship, and Galen expanded his business empires on both sides of the Atlantic, moving easily from millionaire to billionaire status. But success also made them the target of a violent kidnap attempt by the IRA in 1983. It was foiled by a tip to the police, but still resulted in a machine gun battle that left four gunmen seriously wounded. Other Irish billionaires include John Dorrance, an American based in Dublin, who slipped into third place as Tony O’Reilly and Chryss Goulandris, his wife, saw their fortune grow to €1.897 billion. Dermot Desmond, Sean Quinn and Tony Ryan, in fourth, fifth and sixth positions, bring to a record six the number of Irish euro billionaires on today’s list.
The Sunday Times reports that Lakshmi Mittal, chief executive of Mittal Steel Co., overtook Roman Abramovich as the UK's richest person as demand for steel boosted his wealth fourfold to £14.8 billion. Indian-born Mittal, 54, knocked Abramovich, the 38-year-old Russian owner of Chelsea soccer club, into second place in the annual Sunday Times list of Britain's 1,000 richest people. The combined wealth of the list jumped 23 percent to £250 billion as London drew millionaires from around the world. © Copyright 2007 by Finfacts.com |
