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Billionaire John Paul Getty III is selling his one hundred acre estate, Gurthalougha House, on the shores of Lough Derg here in Co Tipperary.
Mr Getty is the grandson of John Paul Getty, the American industrialist who founded Getty Oil and was once declared America’s richest man. Latter at one time famously installed a coin operated telephone in his New York mansion.
 Getty Irish Residence in Tipperary As a teenager John Paul Getty III was kidnapped by Sicilian bandits in the 1970s. When his grandfather refused to pay the $17 million ransom, he received a further demand with an envelope containing the ear and a lock of hair of the 16 year old. Following this a ransom of $2.9 million was paid and John Paul III was restored to the bosom of his family. His kidnappers, supposedly linked with the ‘Ndrangheta, were never caught. In 1981, a prescription drug overdose resulted in a stroke which left Mr Getty permanently paralyzed and nearly blind.
The Victorian house is a short boat ride away from the beautiful village of Terryglass, Nenagh and has been the hideaway for Mr Getty and his mother Mrs Gail Harris Getty, on and off, for the past 12 year, since the property was purchased and restored in 1998.
Mr Getty, who is aged 53 and wheelchair bound, now will spend his time living between UK, USA and Italy, and has already begun to move the bulk of the properties furniture and paintings to their family’s other homes.
The house, a former Hidden Ireland guest-house was purchased for €1.27 million following the acquisition by several members of the Getty family, of Irish passports under the infamous “Passports for Investment” scheme just before the latter was abolished. Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz, brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden, also purchased eleven Irish passports in 1990 as part of this scheme. Latter was handled personally by the then Fianna Fail Taoiseach, Charles J Haughey. Later Sheikh Mahfouz is understood to have invested £3m in Kerry Airport and a further £3m to help pay for projects associated with companies owned by the Millstreet,Co Cork business entrepreneur Noel C Duggan.
The house, which is set well back from the main road and almost invisible, except from the lake side view, contains 12 bedrooms and is understood to be in immaculate condition.
Co. Tipperary is home to many of the worlds rich and famous who seek privacy in a “get away from it all” environment.
 Back To School With the start of the new school year only days away, and many more late applications expected, the Health Service Executive (HSE) admit that a massive 33,192 crucial back-to-school payment forms currently lie unopened nationally.
Parents are being forced to take out Credit Union loans in their efforts to help meet the costs of required new uniforms and school shoes.
The HSE has confirmed that some families would now not receive payments until after many schools re-open, however some of these affected were parents whose application arrived late.
The North Tipperary region is amongst the countries worst defaulters, where no final decision has been made on almost half of all applications applied for under this grant aid.
Many low-income and lone parents depend on the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance to send their children back to school.
RATES OF PAYMENT
A. €200 in respect of children aged 2 to 11 on the 30th September 2010;
B. €305 in respect of children aged 12 to 17 on the 30th September 2010;
C. €305 in respect of children aged 18 to 22 on the 30th September 2010 who are in full time education.
D. As a special measure introduced in Budget 2009, an additional amount of €215 is payable for children aged 18 ONLY in respect of whom compensatory Child Benefit is in payment.Total payment in respect of eligible children aged 18 is €520.
Applications forms are now available at:
http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Forms/Documents/bscfa.pdf or at http://communitywelfareservice.ie/cws_public/application-forms
Parents who are concerned about their application are advised to contact their local office or the HSE information line, Tel: 1850 24 18 50.
 Kellys of Fantane at work on the N7 motorway It has now been confirmed that up to 100 jobs are to go in the concrete manufacturer plant at Kellys of Fantane over the coming months. The company’s headquarters which are located at Fantane Quarry halfway between Nenagh and Thurles, Co.Tipperary, currently supply a range of quality materials, products and services to local and national customers from quarries located at Latteragh and Inchirourke.
It is understood that the workers will be made redundant over the coming months, as current road project contracts come to an end.
The company previously had benefited from three national road projects since 2006, including most recently the N7 motorway, but says it has no major infrastructural projects in the pipeline, which would ensure continued employment for its current 140 highly skilled and motivated employees.
This news will come as a complete shock to the nearby village of Borrisoleigh.
The company, Kellys of Fantane, had become a household name, nationally, since it began it’s operations in the late 1940’s. Over this period the company had built a very successful business relationships with their clients through their professionalism in providing a high quality product, bound together by an excellent customer service and a recognised consistency down the years. The company had also make a significant contribution to Ireland’s infrastructure through their involvement in some of the Country’s major road projects.
This is the second jobs loss announcement for North Tipperary in just one week, following on from the announcement last weekend of the closure of the Liam Carroll Transport Group in here in Thurles.
 Theodor Paul Albrecht (28 March 1922 – 24 July 2010) Theo Albrecht, the joint founder of the popular budget supermarket giant Aldi, last seen in public after his release from kidnap 39 years ago, has died aged 88. The company said he died on Saturday in his home city of Essen, but gave no cause of death.
The Albrecht brothers, Karl and Theo, co-founders of Aldi, were amongst the two wealthiest people in Germany, with fortunes in excess of €17.35bn and €16.75bn respectively.
Little is known about the two reclusive brother billionaires, with Theo’s last public appearance being in 1971, shortly after his release, after 17 days captivity, by kidnappers who were reportedly paid a $4.67 million ransom.
One rare photo of Theo Albrecht, from the 1980s, shows a nondescript looking man with grey hair and glasses who apparently devoted his spare time to collecting old typewriters, growing orchids and to playing golf on his own private greens.
The first Aldi stores – an acronym standing for “Albrecht Discount” – opened in the early 1960s under the motto: “Concentrating on the basics: a limited selection of goods for daily needs.” The stores began sprouted up all over Germany and are now to be found in nearly 20 countries since their conception.
The Aldi group presently operates about 8,210 individual stores worldwide. A new store opens every week in Britain alone, and the company operates approximately 70 outlets here in Ireland with one popular outlet here in Thurles, Co.Tipperary.
Theo Paul Albrecht was renowned as a hard working man who was always decent with his business partners and employees and who always treated people with the greatest respect.
Mr Albrecht and his elder brother both served as German soldiers in the Second World War, before returning home to Essen and taking over a grocery store their parents owned. They flourished as the German economy, then in shambles after the war, came back to life in what is often referred too as the “Economic Miracle”. If you think Ireland has severe financial problems presently, remember Germany, according to the Potsdam Conference held between July 17 and August 2, 1945, had to pay the Allies $20 billion mainly in machinery, and manufacturing plants. In addition, in accordance with the agreed policy of de-industrialisation and pastoralization, large numbers of civilian factories were dismantled for transport to France and the UK, or simply destroyed. Germany paid Israel 450 million DM in Holocaust reparations, and paid 3 billion DM to the World Jewish Congress to compensate survivors in other countries.
When Forbes featured the brothers in 1992 as two of the world’s richest men, the magazine had to uses silhouettes rather than photographs to illustrate the article since no pictures of them had been published in many years.
The German Retail Federation said that Germany had lost one of its greatest entrepreneurs. “There are only a few people who have stamped their mark on an entire business sector of the economy. Theo Albrecht achieved just that,” the Federation’s managing director, Stefan Genth, said in a statement.
Aldi now has more than 4,000 outlets in Germany alone, where it is known for its no-frills quality shopping environment, streamlined processes and a limited range of discount products.
The brothers retired as CEOs in 1993 and gave most of their wealth to foundations. The Aldi group operates about 8,210 individual stores worldwide, with a new store opening every week in Britain alone.
Go ndéana Dia trócaire ar a anam dílis.
 Ireland's Mid West Region A significant investment boost for the Mid West Region comes on foot of a decision by the European Commission to allow grant aid to help boost employment. Such aid had been phased out two years ago.
This revised European Commission decision on Regional Investment rules could help create employment opportunities in the mid-western region.
The recent decision means that a large company locating to the mid-western region, which covers Limerick, Clare and North Tipperary, will now be able to get grant aid of up to ten per cent of the value of their intended investment, and thus help enterprise agencies to create and attract jobs in the area.
Certainly Grant aid acts as a strong incentive when companies are thinking about locating to an area and this together with language, education, low corporation tax rates, skills, physical and digital infrastructure, does determine a firms investment decisions, when they sit to consider and compare rival locations.
Property Options To Interested Companies In Thurles
Tipperary Technology Park is a fully serviced park with a Business Incubation Centre and quality manufacturing and office accommodation options. Thurles is readily accessible by road, rail and air. It is located on the main Dublin – Cork railway line and just 6km from the main Dublin – Cork motorway. Shannon International Airport has daily direct flights to the US, UK and Europe. International companies in Thurles and the surrounding area include Taro Pharmaceuticals and Procter & Gamble. The town is also well served with a robust broadband telecoms network where a choice of carriers ensure competitive prices and high quality service for all users. Thurles is home to two 3rd level colleges, St Patricks College and the Tipperary Institute, latter a college with an enrolment of over 700 students, with two of the Institutes departments being Business Development and Information / Communications Technologies.
For further information please contact: Brian Keating, Development Manager
Address:Tipperary Technology Park, Thurles, Co Tipperary, Ireland
Tel.: +353 (0) 504 29300 Fax.: +353 (0) 504 29305.
The decision to restore regional aid to the whole mid-west region goes beyond the recommendation in the Report of the Mid-Western Task force which sought aid for a number of business parks in the region.
This decision now puts the much neglected mid-western region in the same position as the south-eastern region, which covers Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Waterford and South Tipperary, where State aid for large investment projects is already allowed.
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