Hotelier, horse breeder and cattle exporter leaves estate valued at more than €104m

Co Westmeath hotelier and award-winning horse and cattle breeder Johnny Connaughton left an estate valued at more than €104 million, according to papers published by the Probate Office in Dublin this week.Connaughton, who died in January this year aged 93, was the owner of Bloomfield House Hotel near Mullingar. He was also the founder breeder and past president of the Irish Simmental Cattle Society, with a reputation for creating a lucrative business exporting the breed to the United States.His bloodstock credits included top-tier racehorses Bay City Roller and Dan Excel. Shortly before his death, he won the national Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association small breeder of the year award.READ MOREConnaughton, of Barrettstown House, Dysart, Co Westmeath, also had an address in Killiney, Co Dublin. Jockey Callum Sheperd aboard Connaughton's horse Bay City Roller in 2024. Photograph: Mike Egerton/PA Wire Poet and Playwright Anne Le Marquand Hartigan left an estate valued at €11.3 million when she died in December 2022, according to papers published by the Probate Office. Le Marquand Hartigan published seven noted collections of poetry, including Long Tongue (1982), Return Single (1986) and the award-winning long poem Now is A Moveable Feast (1991), which was also broadcast on RTÉ.Her theatre piece Beds was first performed at the Damer Theatre as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival in 1982. In 1995, she won the Mobil Prize for Playwriting for her work The Secret Game. Another play, La Corbière (1989), dealt with the story of prostitutes drowned by occupying forces off Jersey. The play has been performed internationally and was later adapted into an opera.She was also an accomplished painter and batik artist, exhibiting her work widely across Ireland and England.Le Marquand Hartigan left the manuscripts of her literary works to the National Library. She also made financial provision for her children and members of her extended family. Poet and playwright Anne Le Marquand Hartigan. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times Aviation entrepreneur Darragh Hall who cofounded global commercial aircraft painting business MAAS Aviation, left an estate valued at more than €17 million. Hall from Sutton, Dublin, and Quarteira, Portugal, saw MAAS Aviation grow to become the primary aircraft painter for aeroplane-maker Airbus, based at their production assembly lines in both Germany and the United States. Hall died in May 2023 without making a will, according to the Probate Office. Judith “Judy” Nugent, who rose to prominence as an expert witness in what became known as the “army deafness claims” in the 1990s left an estate valued at €6.6 million. Almost 17,000 soldiers and former soldiers filed claims alleging negligence on the army’s part in not adequately protecting their hearing.Nugent who died in November 2024 provided clinical audiology assessments and expert court testimonies which were foundational in helping the Irish legal system navigate the hearing-loss claims.In 1985, she founded Diagnostic Audiology Services, now known as Diagnostic Hearing Services. She served as the chief audiologist at the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital in Dublin for over 32 years.The sums referenced in probate documents typically include all assets, covering homes, land and/or investments.