One of the State’s most successful entrepreneurs, Dubliner Pat McDonagh, who developed a range of e-learning educational aids, left €25.3 million when he died in December 2023, according to papers published by the Probate Office.
A former schoolteacher in Baldoyle, north Co Dublin, McDonagh founded the educational software company CBT in 1983. At its height, the firm was valued at €2.5 billion.
He also founded Riverdeep, an educational software company that listed on the Nasdaq exchange in the United States in March 2000 and reached a market capitalisation of $1.8 billion (€1.52 billion) on the day it floated.
Other ventures in which he was involved were Thirdforce/Mindleaders, and Digisoft TV.
McDonagh invested in land in his native north Co Dublin, and backed Arklow, Co Wicklow, developer Greg Kavanagh in land investments around the capital. He also owned a number of stud farms and was an early investor in the Joe Duffy motor group.
McDonagh moved to Corbalton Hall in Skryne, Co Meath, an agricultural estate of some 358 acres and later sold it in 2019 for a reported €11 million. His address for probate was given as Beresford Lawn, Drumcondra.
In 2010, he emerged as the benefactor of a new school in Rolestown in north Dublin, when it was reported he donated €7 million to the cost of the school, some €3 million in advance of the Government’s contribution.
The low-profile businessman was also named as one of the backers of a €260 million buyout of the Arnotts department store during the Celtic Tiger years.
Probate in McDonagh’s estate was granted to the executors, his three children Richard, Sorcha and David.
* The sums mentioned in this article include the value of all assets, typically including homes and land and all investments.
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