BRITAIN IRELAND SCOTLAND YOUNG PEOPLE WOMEN Sean Quinn and family RESULTS 2006 Ranking Worth Industry 2 £2,000m ( €2,941m) Quarries, hotels and insurance Quinn literally dug out his own wealth to become the latest of Ireland’s four sterling billionaires. At the age of 26 he realised the family’s 23-acre dairy farm in Co Fermanagh was sitting on huge reserves of sand, gravel and shale. He bought a truck for £600 and borrowed the money for a mechanical shovel — and Quinn, who had left school at 15, was in the quarrying business. Half the quarry was in Northern Ireland and half in the republic, but there was profit everywhere. In 1975 Quinn started making concrete blocks, then cement and, in the early 1980s, roof and floor tiles. He may have started digging holes but Quinn, 59, is not one to get stuck in a rut and he successfully diversified in the mid-1990s into Dublin pubs and Irish hotels. A property boom increased their value sixfold. But it didn’t stop there: Quinn’s empire moved into insurance and in 2004, the Quinn Group made £154m profit on £609m sales. The business is the most profitable private firm in Ireland and profits could soar off the back of his Quinn Direct insurance company and expansion into glassmaking, plastics and investment in eastern European hotels, including the £28m Sofia Hilton in Bulgaria. By 2008, the group’s value could exceed £3billion. Quinn is described as an unassuming family man (although he does have an executive jet and helicopter). A slice of the company belongs to his five children, Brenda, Ciara, Sean Jr, Colette and Aoife, but their share has not been disclosed. Assets of £435m include financial, insurance, manufacturing, glass and hospitality interests such as The Belfry golf course near Birmingham. RESULTS 2005 Ranking 5 Worth 2005: £810m