Pat Doherty [Wt]: From Stones to Great Buildings

At age fourteen, Pat Doherty started working as a builder for his uncle in Buncrana, County Donegal. With four years' experience, he left with several friends to find work in England at the age of nineteen. They worked for Wimpey to begin with, but by the time he was twenty-two, Pat had his own business supplying brickwork and carpentry to building contractors.

Building by building, Pat built an empire that became the family-owned Harcourt Developments, employing over 1,500 people. With properties in nine countries and a string of major developments, they are probably best known for the regeneration of Belfast's Titanic Quarter. Always understated and shy of the limelight that many developers thrive on, he survived economic crashes in London in the 1970s and NAMA after Ireland's economic collapse. Pat believes in the importance of art, culture and society, and has been painted by Lucien Freud.

Business journalist Richard Curran explores what drives this quiet Donegal man in this revealing biography.