Businessman Jim Mansfield dies after illness

Businessman Jim Mansfield has passed away at the age of 75.

Mr Mansfield, best known as the founder Citywest Hotel, conference and golf complex had been ill for some months.

The once owner of the country’s biggest standalone hotel is understood to have died this morning.

Mr Mansfield left school at 14 and grew up in Brittas, south Dublin. He was at the peak of the boom worth €1.7 billion, according to his own estimate, with assets including not only Citywest but also Weston Aerodrome and Palmerstown House, a protected building on almost 700 acres in Co Kildare.

Mr Mansfield made his original fortune from machinery and equipment salvaged from the Falklands war.

He shipped the machinery to Florida and sold the lot in a series of auctions which were rumoured to have grossed him IR£100 million (€127 million).

He then went into hotels and property and was one of the first Irish businessmen to own a private jet.

Mr Mansfield later lost most of his fortune when property prices collapsed. He lived to see his beloved Citywest Hotel sold by its bankers earlier this year.