Perhaps the most outstanding person to bear the name Feeney is renowned philanthropist Chuck Feeney. We look at the Irish meaning of the name, its origins and its history in Ireland.
Variants: Ó Fidhne, Ó Fighne.
Born in 1931 in New Jersey, Charles (Chuck) Feeney was raised in a working-class area of Elizabeth during the Great Depression. He went on to make billions of dollars as one of the founders of Duty-Free Shopping (DFS).
Yet he lives a modest life with none of the luxuries associated with enormous wealth, due to the fact that he has donated most of his earnings to The Atlantic Philanthropies – a collective of foundations set up by Feeney himself.
Born to the son of an Irish immigrant from County Fermanagh, Chuck Feeney holds dual Irish-American citizenship, and as a young man served four years in United States Air Force before pursuing his business career.
In 1960, he founded DFS with Robert Miller, with the revolutionary idea of selling food and other goods to personnel on U.S. fleets abroad, without tax. By 1966, DFS had become a global retail giant, earning millions for both its founders and its retail partners all over the world, as well as introducing the idea of duty-free shopping to the travel industry.
Read more: What Irish-American billionaire gave away his entire fortune?
Chuck Feeney.
While Forbes magazine estimated Feeney’s wealth to be some $1.3 billion by 1988, the truth was he was worth less than $5 million, having signed over his stake in DFS to a charitable foundation years previously. Feeney had anonymously set up The Atlantic Philanthropies in Bermuda to deliberately avoid disclosure rules surrounding U.S. foundations.
In the mid-1990s, DFS was to be sold to the luxury goods giant, Louis Vuitton Moet-Hennessy group. The sale would put the value of foundation at $3.5 billion, but Feeney’s business partner initially rejected the sale. But when sale did go through, Feeney kept $26 million aside to distribute amongst 2,400 of its longest-serving staff.
Read more: He gave away $8 billion—Chuck Feeney’s Atlantic Philanthropies holds final meeting in Dublin
Despite his wealth, Feeney has always flown economy, does not own a house or a car and has said that he prefers to distribute his fortune to others while he is still alive. By 2010, The Atlantic Philanthropies was worth $2.2 billion and had already given out $5.4 billion in grants.
As well as his philanthropy, Feeney also took a humanitarian interest in Northern Ireland peace process, and made a large donation via his foundation to Irish American Partnership, as well as becoming a key member of Americans for a New Irish Agenda and began aiding Irish universities, most notably the University of Limerick.
In 2002, Atlantic Philanthropies stated that it intended to spend its endowment within next 15 years, highlighting Feeney’s philosophy as outlined in his letter to The Giving Pledge founders Bill Gates and Warren Buffett: “I cannot think of a more personally rewarding and appropriate use of wealth than to give while one is living – to personally devote oneself to meaningful efforts to improve the human condition. More importantly, today’s needs are so great and varied that intelligent philanthropic support and positive interventions can have greater value and impact today than if they are delayed when needs are greater.”
In Ireland today, many Feeneys are concentrated in counties Sligo and Mayo; the name comes from Fiannaidhe, meaning ‘soldier’. The families are thought to have originated from a Connaught clan called Ui Fiachrac, and there are two town names in County Roscommon called Ballyfeeney, an Anglicized version of Baile Feeney, or the home of Feeneys.
Do you know any Feeneys? Make sure to send their name's history and origins along to them.
Read more: The man who did more for the Irish than St. Patrick gives away $8 billion
* Originally published in July 2013 on Ireland of the Welcomes.
Comments