From Chadwicks to Ryans to Smurfits: The founding families of Ireland

From Chadwicks to Smurfits, a number of families have played major roles in the success stories of Irish listed companies.

Outside of the boardroom one family has produced a Conservative Party councillor in London, while in other families some of the next generation have become well known faces on the silver screen.

The Chadwicks

Builders’ merchants grew into major multinational

William Thomas Chadwick founded his builders’ merchants in Dublin in 1902. Now known as Grafton Group it’s a multinational valued at €2.5bn. The family still owns an 8pc stake.

William’s grandson, Michael Chadwick, spent 30 years in the firm. As a major figure in Irish business he represented a late flowering of Dublin’s old Protestant merchant class.

Michael Chadwick joined the firm in 1975 aged 24, becoming executive director in 1979 and chairman in 1985. He led its transformation into a major player in the UK and beyond.

He stepped down in 2016, but the sailing enthusiast remains active in business with investments including Dún Laoghaire marina, and tech start-ups, including Jobbio and Micksgarage.

The Ryans

A fortune founded on travel and deregulation

The late Tony Ryan effectively founded the aircraft leasing industry and set up Ryanair as almost an aside. The family isn’t involved in running Ryanair these days, but it provided a huge fortune and airplanes are still in the blood.

Declan Ryan’s Irelandia Aviation has invested in start-up airlines over decades including Tiger Air, Allegiant and VivaAerobus. It owns a majority stake in Colombia’ Viva Air.

His brother Shane owns the 1,000-acre Castleton Lyons horse breeding operation in Kentucky.

Third brother Cathal died in 2007. His children Danielle and Cillian then inherited a significant share of the Ryanair fortune.

Danielle is an actress and founded her Roads perfume brand in 2013.

Cillian breeds horses.

The Murtaghs

Founded behind the family pub to a €13bn insulation giant

Eugene Murtagh founded Kingspan in Cavan in 1965 as a small engineering and contracting business including manufacturing farm trailers behind the family pub in Kingscourt.

Today the business supplies the building trade across continents and is heavily focused on environmentally sustainable insulation. It is valued at more than €13bn.

The family remains heavily involved. Since 2005 Eugene’s son Gene Murtagh has been CEO and this year Paul Murtagh also joined the board. Another son Damien and his wife have a successful construction kit business, Arckit.

Kingspan still runs its global business from Cavan and sponsors the county GAA team as well as Ulster rugby.

The company’s rise hasn’t been without controversy. Kingspan’s insulation was among products used on the Grenfell Tower in London where 72 people died in a 2017 fire. Kingspan’s Kooltherm hasn’t been blamed as a principal cause of the tragedy but the company’s reputation suffered during evidence at the UK inquiry into the fire.

The Smurfits

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From box-maker to a Ftse100 company as a leading providers of paper-based

THE Smurfit dynasty begins with a small box factory in Dublin that English businessman Jefferson ‘Jeff’ Smurfit, who had a connection to the firm through his Irish wife Ann (Magee), took over in 1938.

Their descendants remain a force in Irish business, including son Michael Smurfit. He left school at 15 in 1955 to join the business and led its transformation into a multinational.

He also developed The K Club and has invested in ventures like nephew Dermot Jnr’s gambling tech firm GAN.

Dermot Smurfit snr, father of actress Victoria Smurfit, followed-up his own senior jobs in the family firm with a later string of successful ventures.

Today Tony Smurfit is the third generation to head what’s now Smurfit Kappa.

Heraty & Carroll

Anne Heraty and her husband, Paul Carroll, sold two businesses in the last year and earned close to €200m in gross proceeds.

Heraty set up CPL in 1989 with Keith O’Malley, buying out the other shareholders a few years later she became the first woman to lead an Irish-listed company when CPL floated in 1999. Ms Heraty and Mr Carroll, who was in charge of business development, kept a 35pc stake, making the recruitment and staffing services firm effectively a family business.

Shareholders accepted a €318m offer from Japanese HR firm Outsourcing Inc and the couple’s cut was about €110m.

Weeks later they sold their Trinity Care nursing home business for about €100m.

The Gallaghers

A Conservative party councillor in London and a Fianna Fáil TD in Ireland

THE siblings behind €365m listed housebuilder Abbey are part of the extended Gallagher family, which has produced a Conservative Party councillor in London and a Fianna Fáil TD at home in Ireland.

Abbey mostly builds in the UK, and it is poised to leave the stock market this month to return to full family control under the leadership of executive chairman Charles Gallagher Jnr.

Eight Gallagher brothers had left Sligo for building work in England before Charles Snr returned home in the 1950s and founded Abbey.

Another brother, Matt, founded Gallagher Group, a huge construction business in its time before collapsing in 1982.

Meanwhile, having floated Abbey on the stock market in 1974 Charles Gallagher Snr was ousted as CEO by other family members only to return triumphantly in 1983.

Charles Jnr joined the board in 1986 at just 26 and, at its helm since 1993, has steered the business through booms and busts. Abbey is the only Irish listed property or construction firm to survive from before the 2008 crash.