HAVE YOU EVER wondered how the rich make – and spend – their money?
A new RTÉ show which airs tonight examines some of Ireland’s richest people and how they live.
The show is based on the top 30 Irish people included in the Sunday Times rich list and shows that to even be included in the top 300 richest Irish people you need to be worth at least €40 million.
Host Joe O’Shea told TheJournal.ie that researching the show taught him a lot about what it takes to be super-rich.
“We learn a lot of things in the show. The most interesting thing to me was the young people. They’d be new arrivals on the rich list like the Collison brothers from Limerick.
The post-crash generation are [the] most interesting segment. They have opportunities and ways of being successful that my generation never had or would never have dreamed of.
“The fact they can have a world-beating idea and turn it into a product and sell it within a year brought home the interconnected world to me. You don’t necessarily have to have gone to the right schools, or have the right connections.”
O’Shea says that the economic crash at the end of the last decade has changed how Ireland views large amounts of money.
“We have a different attitude towards money and wealth than we did during the Celtic Tiger. Developers were treated like rock stars – buying private jets and flying models around.
“I think we’ve changed our attitudes since the crash. We’re more respectful about how money can come and go overnight.
“I think the younger generation have a more respectful attitude. For many, money is not the object for them. It’s about having a great idea, cashing out and moving on to the next thing.
“If you or I won the Euromillions tomorrow we’d tell the people we work for we wouldn’t see them again – in a nice way – and retire to a beach with a big house and nice car. For some billionaires, the object isn’t the bank account.
“With a lot of businessmen, it’s about winning and the bank account may be a measure of that, but it’s about winning.
“I’m not going to say nobody cares about the money, of course they do, but it’s about a lot more them.
“They’re definitely a cut apart. I think the common denominator on the rich list is that they have a drive, an ambition and a sort of genius.”
The first part of the show airs tonight on RTE 2 at 9.30pm.
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