Well-known Limerick hotelier left a whopping figure of over €21m in will

Mr Moran died in March last year, aged 72. During his career, which spanned more than 50 years, he built and lost an empire but he never lost his positivity. He was synonymous with the landmark Red Cow Moran Hotel in Dublin, and a one-time sponsor of the Limerick GAA teams.

The late businessman grew up on a farm in Toureen Donnell near Athea and left school to work as an apprentice coffin-maker in Listowel before emigrating to London aged 16, where he met his wife Sheila Cleary.

The father-of-seven famously started his career by becoming the youngest licensee in London at just 19 years-of-age. He worked as a pub manager for 10 years before returning to Ireland where he bought two pubs in Limerick. Over time he diversified into the hotel business and Moran Hotels became a household name.

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The chain of hotels sponsored the Limerick GAA teams between 1998 and 2003, during which time the U21 hurling team won three consecutive All-Ireland titles.

Mr Moran and his wife moved back to Limerick in 1980 and bought the Top of the Town pub.​ In 1988 a friend asked Mr Moran to accompany him to the auction of the Red Cow Inn on Dublin’s Naas Road. The hammer came down at £1,010,000, (almost €1.3m), making him the first person to pay more than £1m for a pub in Ireland.

He bought London’s Crown pub in Cricklewood in 1998 to develop it into a hotel and later bought the Silver Springs Hotel in Cork and opened the Chiswick ­Moran Hotel in London.

In 2015 Mr Moran sold all the hotels to Dalata with the exception of the Red Cow Moran Hotel.

Paying tribute after his death, fellow West Limerick man and former Mayor Cllr Liam Galvin said:

 "Tommy was able to mix with the millionaires, the billionaires and the people who have nothing."