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Hilary Weston and family

Valued at more than £4 billion, Weston and her family still top our Irish Rich List, even though they have just slipped out of the world’s richest 100. But wealth or the lack of it has not affected Weston’s philanthropy — or her philosophy. She recently declared: “I don’t think one really changes no matter how much money you have. The most important thing is to hang on to what is essentially yourself, and I’d like to think I’ve been able to do that.” Awarded Canada’s highest civilian honour, the Order of Canada, for her charity work, Toronto-based Weston, 65, is now fundraising for a museum there. Her giving goes back to her Dun Laoghaire beginnings, when the leggy teenager Hilary Frayne did modelling work to help support her family. Galen Weston, 66, seconded to Ireland from Canada to open a supermarket, spotted her on a billboard in hot pants and Sheer Dynamite stockings, and secured an introduction. They married three years later and the couple, with their two children — both born in 1972 — spent many years at their estate in the Wicklow hills outside Dublin. Still Canada’s second-richest man, Galen Weston chairs and owns George Weston, one of North America’s largest food processors. Through it he has a 61% stake in Loblaw’s, Canada’s largest supermarket chain, where son Galen Jr, 34, is executive chairman. Both firms saw their value fall in the past 12 months. The couple’s interests span three department store chains — Selfridges in the UK, Brown Thomas in Ireland and Holt Renfrew in Canada. Alannah, 35, their daughter is creative director at Selfridges where she pioneered the concept of “retail theatre” to promote the store. And true to their name of “West End Westons”, Galen’s nephew, George Weston, of the British branch of the dynasty, heads the company that owns the flagship Primark store diagonally opposite Selfridges on Oxford Street.