Tycoon suicide

BraziliaNZ

Does anyone know much about this guy? Irish news websites don't even seem to know it has happened yet...

Patrick Rocca, 'poster boy' of Ireland's Celtic Tiger, kills himself

Patrick Rocca seemed to have it all. A poster boy for Ireland’s Celtic tiger economy, he lent Bill Clinton his helicopter whenever he was in Ireland for a round of golf and rubbed shoulders with Tony Blair at gala dinners.

He played tennis with Sir Alan Sugar in Marbella and ran a property empire that spanned the Irish Sea.

With a glamorous wife, three young children and a sister who is the partner of Van Morrison, the musician, he seemed to embody the shiny world into which Ireland transformed itself after decades on the periphery of Europe.

Yet on Monday morning neighbours noted something was not right when he was seen wandering outside his luxury home in his pyjamas. A little while later he shot himself in the head while his wife Annette was out on the school run.

His suicide, prompted by the prospect of financial ruin according to unnamed friends speaking to Irish newspapers, sent shockwaves through the beau monde of Dublin’s wealthy cocktail society, like a bell tolling the end of the heady days of Ireland’s rampant consumerism and ostentatious exuberance.

Mr Rocca, 41, died from a single gunshot to his head at the family home in Holmeleigh, an exclusive residential enclave on the edge of Dublin’s Castleknock Golf and Country Club. His end was as swift and dramatic as the reversal of fortunes for some Irish banks, including Anglo Irish, which the Government is nationalising and in which Mr Rocca was said to be heavily invested.

“From what I know, Patrick had more than €20 million in loans tied up with Anglo,” one source told an Irish newspaper. “News of the nationalisation was known to have come as a huge shock to him.”

There was no apparent sign in recent days that he was planning a violent death. At the weekend he was out on the town with his wife, at the exclusive members’ club Residence on Stephen’s Green and dined at a restaurant with friends on Sunday evening.

The grandson of an Italian marble mason who helped to rebuild some of Dublin’s finest buildings after the civil war and stayed in Ireland to build a business, Mr Rocca and his family liked to spend their summers in Marbella, where they own a villa.

Mr Rocca’s death came on the day that a High Court judge was picking through the debris of the vast pyramid scheme allegedly run by another Dublin socialite before deciding to refer it to the Garda fraud squad. Breifne O’Brien, a star in Dublin's party scene, is said to have conned friends out of tens of millions to fund an extravagant lifestyle. The crash in the Irish property market allegedly affected his sources of finance, so that he was no longer able to keep up the pretence of being a gifted investor.

British investments

— Lloyd’s Chambers in the City of London, bought for £104 million in 2007 from Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz

— Quadrant House in Sutton, southwest London, the headquarters of Reed Business Information, bought for £65 million in 2007 from the Tchenguiz brothers

— Norwich Union House, in Sheffield, bought in 2007 for £50 million from the Tchenguizes

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5555823.ece

AlmightyCushion

Who? This is the first time I've heard of him. His poor wife and children must be mortified.

g5fd6ow0hseima

oh no!

Silverfish

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Who? This is the first time I've heard of him. His poor wife and children must be mortified.

Rocca Tiles?

BraziliaNZ

Well he was one of those Back-Page-Of-The-Sunday-Independent-Living-Section (BPOTSILSs) type people that the media worshipped during the good times. Really signals the end of an era when they start topping themselves.

Harpy

it was in the papers today..going to see a lot more of this as well over the next few months.

Senna

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

Does anyone know much about this guy? Irish news websites don't even seem to know it has happened yet...

Does it not say it all in the article? why have you an interest in him? would you like it if people wanted to discuss the death of one of your loved ones? Nobody has heard of him, its not like he's a celebrity or famous person.

BraziliaNZ

Senna wrote: »

Does it not say it all in the article? why have you an interest in him? would you like it if people wanted to discuss the death of one of your loved ones? Nobody has heard of him, its not like he's a celebrity or famous person.

Well no one would notice if any of my relatives died, because they're not in the public eye, and if they were I'd expect them to be spoken about of course

Sharpshooter

Wasn't this on the front of the papers today?
I could be wrong , I only glanced at the front page in the newsagents , but it had something to do with him losing a fortune.
Poor guy , he must have felt he had no way to turn and no one to talk to.

JIZZLORD

sounds like wall street types in 1929.

eVeNtInE

This post has been deleted.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

anonymous_joe

For a lot of people, there's almost no way out of serious financial trouble. It's one thing to be €10,000 down, to be losing millions...

That's a guy who probably was suffering severe shock, and unbelievable stress. I feel sorry for the guy, and above all for the family left behind. No matter when this were to happen, it'd be truly tragic.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

This is gonna sound callous, but I always believed that tycoons, deep down, were wimps and this proves it.

I wonder what sort of an inhertance he left his bereaved family? As well as the mental anguish.

cson

It was on the front page of the Daily Mail I think.

At one end of the stick I have a certain sympathy for the guy. He's given his family a certain type of lifestyle and it must have been harrowing to see it disintegrate in front of his eyes.

But at the other end of the stick, I can't help but feel hes taken the easy way out. Aside from the probability and 'shame' of being bankrupt, the anguish he's heaped upon his family is awful. In my honest opinion, its an extremely selfish choice to make. His kids are going to grow up without a father and he's put a huge amount of pressure on his wife as a consequence. How do you tell your kids their Dad killed himself?

I hope his wife and kids get through this as best they can and my sympathy are with them.

DirkVoodoo

Jeez, I feel sorry for the wife and kids. Not only have they lost a father and a husband, but they have been left in financial ruin with no one to look after them. Imagine coming home to find your partner has decided to blow their own head off? I don't have much sympathy for your man, he made his bed, but to leave your family like that is awful.

lostexpectation

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ireland/4300105/Irish-property-tycoon-found-dead-in-suicide-shooting.html
here is speculation that Mr Rocca may have lost a substantial amount of money in Anglo-Irish Bank, which was nationalised by the Irish government last week.

Mr Rocca, who recently bought a Jet Ranger helicopter, and his wife, Annette, were well known on the Dublin social scene.

remember him in the next bubble all you potential tycoons out there

admiralofthefleet

i bet his missus is hot, grief is one of natures most powerful aphrodisiac's:pac:

road_2_damascus

cson wrote: »

It was on the front page of the Daily Mail I think.

At one end of the stick I have a certain sympathy for the guy. He's given his family a certain type of lifestyle and it must have been harrowing to see it disintegrate in front of his eyes.

But at the other end of the stick, I can't help but feel hes taken the easy way out. Aside from the probability and 'shame' of being bankrupt, the anguish he's heaped upon his family is awful. In my honest opinion, its an extremely selfish choice to make. His kids are going to grow up without a father and he's put a huge amount of pressure on his wife as a consequence. How do you tell your kids their Dad killed himself?

I hope his wife and kids get through this as best they can and my sympathy are with them.

I agree, he must have lived by his financial dealings, and if he did, got caught in a bubble of surreal figures that seemed to appear 'safe' in accordance with his paper worth. I hope other people in the same position stop and realise that NOTHING is ever that bad. If you cant put a price on a human life, why place a monitary value like that on yourself. He must have been afraid of disscusing this with his wife.. a communication problem. False priorities, and a true lesson that money does not bring you happiness.Im sure the family will be ok, I hope. God rest him

anonymous_joe

Ikky Poo2 wrote: »

This is gonna sound callous, but I always believed that tycoons, deep down, were wimps and this proves it.

I wonder what sort of an inhertance he left his bereaved family? As well as the mental anguish.

That is pretty callous alright.

I also think it's a silly thing to say. Plenty of tycoons have lost billions and one's killed himself. That's hardly proof of anything, other than one guy's head was fúcked up by severe stress.

cson

anonymous_joe wrote: »

That is pretty callous alright.

I also think it's a silly thing to say. Plenty of tycoons have lost billions and one's killed himself. That's hardly proof of anything, other than one guy's head was fúcked up by severe stress.

It proves he wasn't man enough to face up to the mess he got himself into. He's left his kids without a father and his wife without a husband. Its not callous, its reality.

Trouble2008

I believe people who commit suicide are the biggest cowards ever, since the recession i believe 3/4 "millionaires" have taken their lives.

How can they think their death would resolve the problem?


Instead their families are left with the pieces to pick up

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

anonymous_joe wrote: »

That is pretty callous alright.

I also think it's a silly thing to say. Plenty of tycoons have lost billions and one's killed himself. That's hardly proof of anything, other than one guy's head was fúcked up by severe stress.

Ok, two issues here: tycoons as wimps and suicide.

Tycoons as wimps. There's an insecurity there. They NEED the money and they NEED the 'success' in order to prove themsleves important. You take it away, they feel that they aren't important. Never said they all went on to commit suicide. But a lot of them are wimps.

Suicide. That, for someone who brought his fmaily into a very advantaged life and then threw it away on them, is running away. I don't for one second believe all suicides are cowards, but this guy is.

Dord

It was on the front page of the Ednin' Hedald (city final)

No idea who he is... but the story said it was a murder.

PrettyInPunk

He sold his business, Rocca Tiles a few years ago and had millions invested in Anglo. From what i gather he invested most of his money and lived off it. When Anglo was nationalised the man probably saw his life crumble before his eyes.
I do believe calling suicide cowardly is a very broad generalisation. Sure, on occasions it can seem cowardly. But when you think ' ohh the selfish man he left behind his family', think how much desperation he must have felt to have thought his situation was so unbearable that that was his only choice.

Orion

Senna wrote: »

Nobody has heard of him, its not like he's a celebrity or famous person.

That didn't stop Katie French getting famous after she died.

TheZohanS

Trouble2008 wrote: »

I believe people who commit suicide are the biggest cowards ever, since the recession i believe 3/4 "millionaires" have taken their lives.

How can they think their death would resolve the problem?


Instead their families are left with the pieces to pick up

You're entitled to your own beliefs.

This guy was Michelle Rocas brother.

Yo Mamma

Yeah suicide is the definatly the cowards way out, but I think if u lost 20 million + and were looking down the barrel or financial ruin maybe the only way to save your family from the innevitable persecution and ridicule is to take your own life and if u look at it that way then he may have done right by his family in the end...

Still....... I'm sure he had himself a great auld time when the Celtic Tiger was in full swing so I suppose u gotta take the rough with the smooth

javaboy

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