The richest person in Ireland has over 6 billion euro.

That’s according to today’s Sunday Times rich list – it shows retailer Hilary Weston, who’s a part owner of Brown Thomas, at the top of the pile.

Denis O’Brien, second on the list, is now worth €2.8m, up from €2.1m 12 months ago, due to the growth of his Bermuda-based Digicel Group. John Dorrance, the Campbell Soup founder, climbed a place to number 3, with his fortune increasing from €1.5 billion to €1.6 billion because of the revival in investment markets.

The fastest growing fortunes on the list are those of Sir David McMurtry, a Dublin native who part owns Renishaw, an engineering firm based in Gloucestershire, and Martin Naughton, the Glen Dimplex owner, whose respective wealth grew by 143% and 103% in the last year.

Other losers include  Michael Leary, the Ryanair chief executive, whose wealth slumped by 10% because of a slide in his airline’s share price. For a second consecutive year, there is no room in the top  250 for Sean Quinn, once Ireland’s richest man, who disappeared from the list last year.

While many property developers vanished off the list entirely or saw their values plummet last year, new entrants from internet, export, fuel and renewable energy businesses saw the overall wealth of Ireland’s top 250 increase by 11% to €43.6 billion. You now have to be worth €36m to make it into the top 250 richest people in Ireland, up by €1.1m on 2009’s list. It is the first rise in the entry threshold for three years.

The highest new entrant was Dr Pearse Lyons, a bioscience millionaire worth €808m, who debuted at number 6 due to the success of Alltech, with bases in Co. Meath and Kentucky.

Several internet entrepreneurs also entered the list for the first time, including Andrew Collins of 123.ie, worth €36m, and Greg and Niall Turley, shareholders in car hire site Cartrawler, whose fortune is v alued at €95m.

While rising fuel prices have hit consumers they have helped generate several new entrants, including Eugene Dalton (€36m), Mayo, of Corrib Oil, Chris and Sandra O’Callaghan of Cork’s Inver Energy (€40m) and Hugh Nicholl (€40m), of Nicholl Fuel Oil in Co Derry.

Other new entrants include Dublin’s Club Travel founder Liam Lonergan (€36m) and Charlie O’Loughlin (€36m), whose ¤uro2 discount shops now number 49 across Ireland helped by the downturn. A partial recovery in the stock market has boosted the fortunes of David Power (€130m), co-founder of Paddy Power bookmakers, Michael Chadwick (€83m), chairman of Grafton, the Dublin DIY group and Eugene Murtagh (€297m), chairman of Kingspan, whose firm makes building products.

Celebrities Liam Neeson (€57m) and Bob Geldof (€36m) also appear for the first time. The richest entertainers are U2, who are now worth €517m due to a record-breaking world tour and huge earnings from merchandise and their back catalogue. New pretenders Jedward have a long way to go to catch up with the rockers. They may not be to Simon Cowell’s taste but the effervescent twins have earned €2m from endorsements and advertisements for products as diverse as Shake ‘n’ Vac carpet freshener and Kellogg’s Coco Pops. The duo entre the Young Rich List at number 19.

More about: Airline Bermuda Billionaire CAMPBELL SOUP COMPANY chairman chief executive co-founder Dublin Economics Eugene Dalton Eugene Murtagh Glen Dimplex Grafton Grafton Group PLC Hugh Nicholl Irish people Kellogg Kellogg Company Kentucky Martin Naughton Millionaire money Niall Turley Pearse Lyons renewable energy businesses Renishaw PLC Republic of Ireland Sean Quinn United States Wealth