IT IS not every 50-year old who can celebrate their birthday with a private concert by the legendary crooner Tom Jones, but then not every 50-year old has as much to celebrate as Bren O'Toole. This evening, the helicopters will be buzzing over his Meath mansion, Lodestown, as he and his wife Mimi (formerly Maureen) throw a lavish birthday bash for three or four hundred of their closest friends.

This popular couple are well known for their hospitality and tonight's guest list is said to include not only An Taoiseach, and executives from the National Roads Association, but also figures from the world of entertainment. Phil Coulter is expected to tinkle the ivories. Unfortunately, Bono is in London this evening but is thought, in a typically witty gesture, to have had a large tractor-style lawnmower delivered earlier in the week. The lawns at Lodestown are legendarily expansive.

Bren's wife Mimi, a former Rose, is well known on the society circuit for her tireless work for children's charities. She has recently demonstrated her business talents by opening her own spa, the eponymous Mimi's, in Dundalk. Before that, her time was completely taken up by the refurbishment of Lodestown, which she oversaw with the talented architect, bachelor Davis Wetherby. In fact, it was through Mr Wetherby that the O'Tooles bought Lodestown, once the home of his distant relations, the de Havilands. Mrs O'Toole immediately made her mark on the locality by hiring the full complement of Filipino staff and refusing to let local hunts cross Lodestown land. "I am mad about animals, " she said.

The couple's beautiful daughter, Emma, is a model and runs her own PR company. She has worked closely with the Irish rugby team and her name has been linked with a host of players. Emma is a popular girl. She is devoted to her father, who is thought to have paid a six-figure sum for some photographs of her which he thought unflattering.

Emma's older brother, Little Brendan, is thought to have been the one who introduced his sister to the party circuit, of which he was a mainstay for several turbulent years. Recently, Little Brendan has become something of a home bird, although he flies several times a year to Arizona.

This love of travel is something Little Brendan shares with his father. Bren O'Toole has long been a regular visitor to Asia. Although he is a lifelong non-smoker and gave up alcohol 10 years ago, Bren has been plagued by back problems, as a result of a work-related injury sustained on a previous visit to Bangkok. It was there that he met his personal physiotherapist, Noy, who flies around the world with him. To O'Toole, Noy (26) has proved something of an inspirational figure. "Her father fixed bicycles and they had f**k all, " he told one Sunday newspaper. "But sure look at her now. " These remarks were made during a pressured time. Due to a misunderstanding, O'Toole was being investigated simultaneously by the Revenue Commissioners, the Department of Social Welfare and two tribunals.

However he emerged triumphant, winning a People Of The Year Award for his charity work, and now counts the Taoiseach as one of his personal friends. The two are known to share a lifelong love of Neil Diamond and of male-only lunches given at one of O'Toole's penthouse apartments in the capital.

Friends say that Bren O'Toole is unchanged by his extraordinary wealth, remaining the same quiet man they have always known. His property empire now extends from Manhattan to Dubai, and he was one of the first Celtic Tiger entrepreneurs to start opening up Irish markets in China. His work in China brought him to the notice of the British authorities and he was investigated by them, as they wished to honour him with a knighthood. But O'Toole is thought to have refused this honour. "Mr O'Toole is a republican through and through, " said a spokeswoman from his office.

Indeed, it is well known that O'Toole has offered free golfing facilities to the Sinn Fein team when it was negotiating at Stormont. In one of his rare public statements, he said of the Sinn Fein politicians: "Those lads need a rest."

Gerry Adams rang him personally to explain that neither he nor his colleagues played golf. Former US president Bill Clinton was not so shy, and has played in a four-ball with O'Toole at the exclusive Los Ninos club in Spain on several occasions. "Bren is a lovely guy, " remarked the former president.

All this is a far cry from O'Toole's modest beginnings in a five-bedroomed house near Clones, Co Monaghan. His father, also Brendan O'Tool (the e was added later), had returned from the UK to start a tarmacadam business in the locality. It was a tribute to the ingenuity and business acumen of Brendan Senior that his business seemed to thrive at a time of unprecedented economic depression in the border region. Brendan Senior was known as a meticulous workman who was not above tarring the same stretch of road twice. When rival businesses collapsed as the result of a series of fires on their premises, and of intimidation from the paramilitaries, Brendan Senior stood firm. Soon his was the only tarmacadam business for 60 miles in any direction.

Brendan O'Toole, the second son, was born in Birmingham and was 12 years of age when the O'Tool family returned to their home place. His older brother, Gearoid, always known as a spiritual boy, later became a priest. He is now a masseur and crystal consultant working out of San Francisco. They have three sisters, one of whom, Grainne, used to run the controversial geriatric nursing home Carlton Manor. Her brother Bren is thought to have paid all her legal bills and the two are said to be remarkably close.

Bren O'Toole's personal empire has been built through a series of inspired deals with convents round the country. All his life, he has been a daily Communicant, and he relieved elderly nuns of the burden of running uneconomic convents, and built imaginative developments for young first-time buyers. In Dubai, he is particularly admired for his seafront developments.

In Dublin, it is difficult to find anyone with a bad word to say about Bren O'Toole . . . or The Brenner as he is affectionately known. On accepting his third honorary degree, O'Toole made it clear that an incident in which an elderly member of the de Haviland family was found on the roof of Lodestown, apparently trying to remove a tricolour that was flying there, would not be pursued in the courts. Similarly, he said, the working conditions of mainly non-national construction workers on his building sites had been greatly exaggerated. As he listens to Tom Jones tonight at Lodestown, and looks back on 50 years of remarkable achievements, Bren O'Toole can relax in the knowledge that the whole country wishes him many happy returns.

C.V.

Born: 1 April 1957, Birmingham, England.

Married to: Mimi (nee Maureen McCarthy). Two children, Little Brendan and Emma.

Profession: Millionaire In the news because: He is 50 today.

A lavish party is planned for tonight.