Fewer than 2,000 people live in the Co Laois town of Abbeyleix, but one of them, who is there for at least a portion of the year, has a net worth of more than €15 billion.
In 2021, tech billionaire John Collison acquired Abbeyleix House and Farm, a historical residence dating back to the 1700s, for €20 million.
Other wealthy figures from the world of international business have followed suit, snapping up large Irish homes.
In August, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg paid a similar fee for Strancally Castle in Co Waterford, not far from Youghal. Zuckerberg’s new Irish home is a short drive from Ballynatray House, which British billionaire James Dyson bought for about €30 million in 2024.
RM Block
Anyone in the Youghal area wondering what the arrival of a tech billionaire resident means for the neighbourhood should look to Abbeyleix.
In the five years that Collison, co-founder with his brother Patrick of the online payment processing company Stripe, has brought much to the Co Laois town.
Robbie Quinn, chairperson of the local Tidy Towns branch, believes Collison’s arrival five years ago was “great for the town”.
“I can see the similarities [with Zuckerberg], but I think it’s a very different situation,” Quinn says.
“John Collison may be looking to set down roots long term. He’s from the next county [Collison was raised in Dromineer, Co Tipperary]. I don’t know what Mark Zuckerberg’s intentions are long-term.”
Collison has funded work on the 1,120-acre estate through his ownership, refurbishing its buildings, the main house and the gardens.
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Quinn says he has created an “excessive amount of employment around the place”, hiring local, traditional tradespeople to carry out maintenance and refurbishment from stonemasonry to carpentry and finishing.
Some 25 staff work on Abbeyleix House and Farm, with a further 38 people employed at Ómós, a new boutique restaurant and guest house part-funded by Collison. It is situated on the edge of the estate, in an old Victorian building named Millbrook House.
The Tidy Towns group works closely with the house and farm. It collaborates on biodiversity projects with both the estate and a local bog restoration group, which began as a community campaign in 2000 in response to planned commercial harvesting by Bord na Móna. In 2009, locals were afforded a 50-year lease to manage the bog with a primary focus on conservation.
Prior to Collison and its previous owner Welsh businessman Sir David Davies, Abbeyleix was historically owned by the De Vesci family, whose legacy in the town is unavoidable.
In the 18th century, with the old town subject to flooding from the river Nore, the De Vescis took the decision to level it and relocate Abbeyleix to higher plains
Garry Luttrell, the treasurer of the Abbeyleix Vitality Hub, says the community always had a “great affinity” with the De Vesci family, who were “the landlords of the town”. Their fingerprints are all over the design of the area, including the market house in the town square, which now functions as a library.
Some of Collison’s involvements are shaping the look of Abbeyleix today. Together with Abbeyleix Tidy Towns, he is funding a shopfront enhancement scheme, which allows local business owners to avail of a grant of up to €10,000 to develop the facade of their premises.
Luttrell, who is also involved with the bog restoration project, says Collison is very receptive to local projects.
“You can go to him with a good proposal, or to [his] team with a good proposal, and they will look at it,” he says.
“But they’re not fools either. Let’s say I wanted to do a whole load of restoration on the bog – a lot of the drain blocking and that kind of stuff. They won’t just throw out the money like that. They will look at alternatives [like] State funding.”
The Vitality Hub, located in a building surrounded by facilities for soccer, tennis, hockey and GAA, is a community initiative funded by Sport Ireland. It hosts classes and meetings for local groups; yoga, pilates, beekeeping and bike rides are among the activities it facilitates.
Luttrell and the hub’s coordinator Liz Kennedy say Collison tries to avoid a high profile in the area. Luttrell says that, from what he gathers, Collison lives in the house “quite a lot of the time”, but that he “blends in” if and when he is around the town.
“There’s nearly a feeling that he’s one of our own too,” Kennedy says.
“The fact that he’s Irish ... I think that comparison with Zuckerberg would be different in that sense – that’s an American coming in.”
One of the business owners hoping to avail of the shopfront enhancement scheme is Alison McEvoy, a visual artist in pen and watercolour, who is in the process of opening her own studio in the centre of the town, on the site of what used to be an arts and crafts shop she co-ran.
McEvoy grew up in Abbeyleix, and recalls visiting the estate on its occasional open days when she was younger.
Since Collison arrived, she has been involved in “different kinds of creative projects”, such as artist’s retreats, that are occasionally hosted by the house and farm.
“It’s absolutely huge,” McEvoy says of the estate. “If you went and decided to draw one tree a day, you’d do a different one for the rest of your life.”
She has been impressed by the immediate impact of Ómós, which can house several dozen guests at a time in its 16-room guest house. Many guests have brought business to the town since it opened in July, she says.
“In general in Abbeyleix, [the feeling is] very positive towards the estate,” McEvoy says.
“Chances are somebody’s neighbour works down there, or they’re a contractor or tradesperson. I could go on and on and list loads of people who work down in the estate, but it’s all very local.”
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She too dismisses the comparison with Zuckerberg in Waterford and says that a different owner might not have matched Collison’s attention to detail in the upkeep of the house and farm.
“The renovations that they’re doing are just phenomenal,” McEvoy says. “Nothing is wasted. Nothing is done badly or incorrectly.”
Fianna Fáil councillor John Joe Fennelly has been a local representative for Abbeyleix for 27 years. Over the last five of them, he says Collison has supported a “phenomenal” number of organisations in Laois, including the local Lions Club, schools, the hospital, St Vincent de Paul and the men’s shed.
“We knew it was somebody that was going to be heavily involved in the community and that,” Fennelly says.
“And that has turned out to be the case ... People are very, very proud of the community that we have here. When they bought in here, they were buying into a very good town as well and we have huge community spirit.”
In October 2025, in the pages of The Irish Times, John Collison opined on Irish infrastructure, claiming that factors such as over-regulation and an increase in the number of Government agencies and non-governmental organisations were to blame for the slow development of housing and other large-scale projects in the State.
Asked if the town engages with Collison’s views on national issues, he says the most important thing is that “he’s there” and “his staff works with the community”.
“As long as he’s in the area, and his team is in the area, I think it’s going to be of benefit to Abbeyleix,” he says.
“Long may it continue.”
