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...