5. Denis O’Brien
Businessman Denis O’Brien (61) first made his fortune in 2000 when he sold his Esat Telecom business to British Telecom Group for €2.4bn.
But his real cash cow has been Digicel, the telecoms business he brought to the Caribbean and South Pacific. Between 2012 and 2014, he received dividends totalling $1.1bn from the company.
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