Saoirse Ronan

Saoirse Una Ronan (born 12 April 1994) is an Irish film actress. She began her career as a child and came to international prominence in 2007 after co-starring in the film Atonement, which gained her nominations for a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Ronan has since appeared in several Hollywood films, including the children's Christmas story The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey (2007), with Tom Berenger and Joely Richardson, the romantic comedy I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007), the film adaptation of the science fantasy Young Adult novel City of Ember (2008), Death Defying Acts (2008), the war drama film The Way Back (2010) and Hanna (2011). She was awarded a Saturn Award and a second BAFTA Award nomination for her portrayal in Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones (2009).

Personal Life

Born in New York City, Ronan is the only child of Irish parents Monica and Paul Ronan – the latter an actor – who were living in New York at the time. She was raised in County Carlow, Ireland, having moved there when she was three years old. Ronan is currently home schooled and lives in County Carlow. As a baby, she sometimes accompanied her father on the set when he was working on such films as The Devil's Own.

Ronan supports the Irish Blue Cross, as the charity had reunited her with her runaway dog Sassie. On her name, she said, "'Searsha' is how Irish people pronounce my first name, but I would pronounce it 'Sersha,' like 'inertia'. It's Irish for 'freedom.' I recently found out that my middle name, Una, means 'unity' in Ireland. And I think my last name means 'seal.' So I’m a free, unified seal."

From : www.wikipedia.org

Michael D Higgins

Michael Daniel Higgins (Irish: Mícheál D. Ó hUiginn; born 18 April 1941) is the ninth and current President of Ireland, having taken office on 11 November 2011 following victory in the 2011 Irish presidential election. Higgins is an Irish politician, poet, sociologist, author and broadcaster. Higgins was President of the Labour Party until his resignation following the presidential election. He was formerly a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Galway West constituency and served as Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht from 1993 to 1997.

Early Life

Higgins was born in Limerick. When his father's health grew poor, with alcohol a contributing factor, his mother sent Higgins, aged five, and his four-year-old brother to live on his unmarried uncle and aunt's farm near Newmarket on Fergus, County Clare. His older twin sisters remained in Limerick. He was educated at Ballycar National School, County Clare; St. Flannan's College, Ennis; University College Galway (UCG); Indiana University; and Manchester University. As an undergraduate at UCG, he served as Vice Auditor of the College's Literary and Debating Society in 1963–1964, and rose to the position of Auditor in the 1964–1965 academic year. He also served as President of UCG Students' Union in 1964–65.

Higgins holds a graduate degree in sociology. In his academic career, he was a Statutory Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Sociology at University College Galway and was a Visiting Professor at Southern Illinois University. He resigned his academic posts to concentrate fully on his political career.

He is a fluent speaker of both official languages, Irish and English.

Family life

His wife, Sabina Coyne, is an actress and a native of Cloonrane, a townland in County Galway near Ballindine, County Mayo. She grew up on a farm there in a family of five girls and two boys. She developed an interest in theatre and trained using Stanislavski's system. Higgins met Coyne in 1969 at a party in the family home of journalist Mary Kenny. Higgins proposed at Christmas 1973 and they got married the year after. They have four children: Alice Mary, twins John and Michael Jnr, and Daniel.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Pallonji Mistry

Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry (born 1929) is an Irish construction tycoon. According to Forbes, his wealth is estimated to be US$8.8 billion as of 2011. He is the richest person of Parsi descent followed by Adi Godrej at US$7.3 Billion (130 on Forbes List). With his 18.4% stake in Tata Sons, he is the single largest shareholder in India's largest private conglomerate Tata Group. He is also the Chairman of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group through which he owns Shapoorji Pallonji Construction Limited, Forbes Textiles and Eureka Forbes Limited. He is also the former Chairman of Associated Cement Companies. Pallonji gave up his Indian citizenship in 2003 in order to obtain Irish citizenship, because India does not yet allow dual citizenship. His son Cyrus has been named as the deputy chairman of Tata Sons and shall succeed Ratan Tata in December 2012. A short biography of Mistry was written in a 2008 book by Manoj Namburu titled The Moguls of Real Estate.

Personal Life and Wealth

Mistry's father first bought shares in the Tata Sons in the 1930s, a stake that currently stands at 18.4%. Mistry is the largest single shareholder in Tata Sons, a firm mostly controlled by trusts. The Mistrys have a huge construction company, Shapoorji Pallonji. Shapoorji, the group patriarch and Pallonji's father, built some of Mumbai's landmarks around the Fort area - the Hong Kong Bank, Grindlays Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and Reserve Bank of India building.

Mistry is an extraordinarily low-profile billionaire, never giving interviews and rarely being seen out in public. He is often described as being media shy. His employees call him the man with no faults, his friends describe him as humble and within the Tata Group he is known as the Phantom of Bombay House for the quiet but assured way he commands power around the south Mumbai headquarters of the Tata empire.

In 2003, he became an Irish citizen "on the basis of his marriage to an Irish born national", Pat (Patsy) Perin Dubash, who was born in September 1939 in Hatch Street Nursing House in Dublin. He gave up his Indian Citizenship as the Indian Government currently does not allow dual citizenship, though he remains resident in Mumbai. He owns a stake in the Taj Mahal Hotel which was attacked by terrorists in 2008. The family’s interest in Ireland is compounded by their love of horses. They own a 200 acres (0.81 km2) stud farm in Pune, India. It’s a lavish operation, with the drinking water for the 100 or so horses specially filtered. Mistry also owns a 10,000-square-foot (930 m2) home in Pune.

He has two sons - Shapoor and Cyrus Pallonji Mistry and two daughters - Laila and Aloo. His son, Shapoor Mistry is married to Behroze Sethna the daughter of lawyer Rusi Sethna. The second son, Cyrus Pallonji Mistry, is married to Rohika Chagla the daughter of lawyer Iqbal Chagla. His daughter, Laila, is married to Rustom Jehangir and his daughter, Aloo, is married to Noel Tata, the half-brother of Ratan Tata. His son-in-law, Noel Tata, is the CEO of the retail arm of the Tata Group. His son, Cyrus Pallonji Mistry,has been named deputy chairman of Tata Sons and will succeed Ratan Tata when he retires in December 2012 as the next chairman of the $83 billion Tata Group.

Religion

Pallonji Mistry is a Parsi, his religion being Zoroastrianism. 

From : www.wikipedia.org

Denis O'Brien

Denis O'Brien (born 19 April 1958 in County Cork) is an Irish businessman. An Arts graduate of University College Dublin, O'Brien has received a MBA in corporate finance from Boston College in 1982, and was later given an honorary doctorate by University College Dublin.

O'Brien has involvement with various communications companies at national and international level. He set up and chaired the Esat Digifone consortium which won a mobile phone licence in the 1990s in what would become controversial circumstances despite claims to this day that theirs was the best bid. The Moriarty Tribunal found that in its opinion it was almost beyond doubt that his winning of the contract was due to payments he made to Michael Lowry, the then communications minister, who unduly influenced the bidding process. The whole conduct of this Tribunal has been strongly criticised for its propensity to accept gossip as fact. It was the winning of this contract that formed the basis of his fortune. He established Digicel, a major telecoms provider in the Caribbean. O'Brien formed Communicorp Group Ltd in 1989, with the company currently owning 42 radio stations in 8 European countries, including Ireland's Newstalk, Today FM, Dublin's 98 (formerly 98FM), Spin 1038 and Spin South West.

In addition, O'Brien has founded the international commercial aircraft company Aergo Capital Limited - registered in Dublin, with offices in Nairobi, Singapore, Santiago and Johannesburg. He is a leading shareholder in both Sterling Energy and in Sir Anthony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media (IN&M). He is a resident of Malta, having moved there for tax purposes after previously living in Portugal, also for tax purposes.

Personal Wealth

According to the Forbes Magazine (March 2009), O'Brien has made himself a fortune of $2.2 billion.

Move to Malta

O'Brien had considered the flotation of Digicel on the New York Stock Exchange and he has taken up residence in Malta. Malta charges no tax on worldwide assets or income brought in by permanent residents. Residence, for tax purposes, means renting or buying a property with a minimum value and visiting Malta at least once within one year of becoming a resident.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Mary McAleese

Mary Patricia McAleese (Irish: Máire Pádraigín Bean Mhic Ghiolla Íosa; born 27 June 1951) served as the eighth President of Ireland from 1997 to 2011. She was the second female president and was first elected in 1997 succeeding Mary Robinson, making McAleese the world's first woman to succeed another as president. She was re-elected unopposed for a second term in office in 2004. McAleese is the first President of Ireland to have come from either Northern Ireland or Ulster.

McAleese graduated in Law from Queen's University Belfast. In 1975, she was appointed Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology at Trinity College, Dublin and in 1987, she returned to her Alma Mater, Queen's, to become Director of the Institute of Professional Legal Studies. In 1994, she became the first female Pro-Vice Chancellor of Queen's University of Belfast. She worked as a barrister and also worked as a journalist with RTÉ.

McAleese has used her time in office to address issues concerning justice, social equality, social inclusion, anti-sectarianism and reconciliation. She has described the theme of her Presidency as "Building Bridges". This bridge-building materialised in her attempts to reach out to the unionist community in Northern Ireland. These steps included celebrating the Twelfth of July at Áras an Uachtaráin and she even incurred criticism from some of the Irish Catholic hierarchy by taking communion in a Church of Ireland cathedral in Dublin. Despite being a practicing Roman Catholic, she holds liberal views regarding homosexuality and women priests. She is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders and was ranked the 64th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes. In spite of some minor controversies, McAleese remained popular and her Presidency is regarded as successful.

Background and Family Life

Born Mary Patricia Leneghan (Irish: Máire Pádraigín Ní Lionnacháin) in Ardoyne, north Belfast, McAleese was the eldest of nine children. She is a Roman Catholic. Her family was forced to leave the area by loyalists when The Troubles broke out. Educated at St Dominic's High School, she also spent some time when younger with the Poor Clares, Queen's University Belfast (from which she graduated in 1973), and Trinity College, Dublin. She was called to the Northern Irish Bar in 1974, and remains a member of the Irish Bar. She opposes abortion and divorce.

In 1976, she married Martin McAleese, an accountant and dentist by profession. He has assisted his wife with some of her initiatives as president. They have three children: Emma, born 1982, graduated as an engineer from University College Dublin and is a dentistry student at Trinity College, Dublin; twins: Justin, an accountant with a master's degree from University College Dublin, and SaraMai, who obtained a master's degree in biochemistry at the University of Oxford were born in 1985.

From : www.wikipedia.org