{"id":404008,"date":"2026-04-17T21:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T21:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/404008\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T21:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T21:08:07","slug":"riverdeep-founder-pat-mcdonagh-left-estate-valued-at-e25-3m-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/404008\/","title":{"rendered":"Riverdeep founder Pat McDonagh left estate valued at \u20ac25.3m \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">One of the State\u2019s most successful entrepreneurs, Dubliner Pat McDonagh, who developed a range of e-learning educational aids, left \u20ac25.3 million when he died in December 2023, according to papers published by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/probate-office\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/probate-office\/\">Probate Office<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A former schoolteacher in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/baldoyle\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/baldoyle\/\">Baldoyle<\/a>, north <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dublin\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dublin\/\">Co Dublin<\/a>, McDonagh founded the educational software company CBT in 1983. At its height, the firm was valued at \u20ac2.5 billion. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He also founded Riverdeep, an educational software company that listed on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/nasdaq\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/nasdaq\/\">Nasdaq<\/a> exchange in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/united-states\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/united-states\/\">United States<\/a> in March 2000 and reached a market capitalisation of $1.8 billion (\u20ac1.52 billion) on the day it floated. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Other ventures in which he was involved were Thirdforce\/Mindleaders, and Digisoft TV.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">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. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">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 \u20ac11 million. His address for probate was given as Beresford Lawn, Drumcondra. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In 2010, he emerged as the benefactor of a new school in Rolestown in north Dublin, when it was reported he donated \u20ac7 million to the cost of the school, some \u20ac3 million in advance of the Government\u2019s contribution. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The low-profile businessman was also named as one of the backers of a \u20ac260 million buyout of the Arnotts department store during the Celtic Tiger years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Probate in McDonagh\u2019s estate was granted to the executors, his three children Richard, Sorcha and David. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">* The sums mentioned in this article include the value of all assets, typically including homes and land and all investments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the State\u2019s most successful entrepreneurs, Dubliner Pat McDonagh, who developed a range of e-learning educational aids,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[177952,72,615,61,60,7389,15843,115],"class_list":{"0":"post-404008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-baldoyle","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-dublin","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-nasdaq","14":"tag-probate-office","15":"tag-united-states"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}