By Rose Mary Roche
Spreading the word: Mariga and Desmond in Denver in 1972
IN December a surprising report revealed that the will of Desmond Guinness, who is believed to have been worth €14 million, had ended up in Dublin’s High Court. Throughout his life the Guinness heir had used his privilege to champion the preservation of Ireland’s Georgian architecture but his death aged 88 during the pandemic has now made headlines again.
The Honourable Desmond Guinness, who died in August 2020, mid-pandemic, aged 88, was the progeny of two remarkable families. His surname is one of the most famous in Ireland, but his mother was also from a celebrated clan, the Mitfords, who were known for their beauty, charm, wit and polarised political affiliations.
Desmond’s mother Diana left her first husband Bryan Guinness for Oswald Mosley, who founded the British Union of Fascists, while her younger sister Decca was a communist who supported the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War.
With such a pedigree it is not surprising that Guinness chose a life that was unusual and unconventional. He not only inherited his dazzling blue eyes from his mother Diana, but also a sharp intelligence, determination and an abundance of charm.
Dynamic and urbane, he possessed glamour, wealth and charisma. That he chose to put all of those attributes to the cause of preserving Ireland’s buildings instead of living a life of idle pleasure puts us all in his debt.
Born in 1931 in London, one of the most notable things about the infant Desmond was his profusion of dark long hair. As he grew, he retained this abundant head of hair, but it changed colour to become a bright shade of blond.
His mother Diana was also a natural blonde and one of the Bright Young Things of the 1920s. She was a celebrated society beauty and his father Bryan was also strikingly handsome, so both contributed to their son’s matinee idol looks. Diana had married Bryan aged only 19 in January 1929 and quickly bore him two sons whom she adored; she nicknamed them ‘the kittens’.
To the world she appeared to have everything: wealth, beauty, and a perfect family but once she met the politician Oswald Mosley — who was already married and a well-known womaniser — the marriage was in trouble. Diana left the family home when Desmond was only an infant, to the dismay of her family and became Mosley’s mistress. Bryan was devastated but agreed to a divorce.
When Mosley’s wife Lady Cynthia Curzon died tragically from peritonitis, Mosley married Diana three years later. Keen to have a low-key ceremony and avoid publicity in England, the wedding was held at the home of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels in Germany and included as guest of honour Adolf Hitler. Apparently Mosley did not personally like Hitler, but Diana was an ardent admirer of the Fuhrer. The couple decided not to go public with their marriage for another two years, until the birth of the first of their two children in 1938. They had two boys, Alexander and Max.
After the outbreak of war, Mosley and Diana were placed under arrest as Nazi sympathisers in 1940. Desmond, then only a child, visited his mother in Holloway prison, which
‘Ireland is Heaven, everyone is so dotty’
must have been extremely traumatic. However, he mostly grew up with his father, and would have spent long periods in Knockmaroon House in Castleknock as well as the Guinness family home in London.
He was educated at Gordonstoun, Eton College and read French and Italian at Corpus Christi College Oxford. Strikingly handsome, socially gregarious and a dandy who dashed around in leopard print trousers, he cut quite a figure as a student. There he met his wife Marie-Gabrielle von Urach, the granddaughter of the second Duke Urach, who was once briefly the King of Lithuania.
Known as Mariga, she said of
Desmond, ‘I got the pretty one,’ when comparing him to his contemporaries at Oxford.
She was actually a titled princess, as well as flamboyant, bright and unconventional.
After their marriage in 1954, Desmond was employed to manage his father’s properties. Bryan, by this time Lord Moyne and Vice Chairman of Guinness, lived half the year in Ireland so Desmond rented Carton House while the couple looked for a permanent home.
They were appalled and saddened at the state of many older
Irish houses while house-hunting. Mariga however loved the country noting, ‘Ireland is Heaven, everyone is so dotty and delicious, and no one dreams of taking anything seriously except perhaps the Horse Show.’
The couple eventually bought Leixlip Castle in 1958, a Norman keep which originally dated from 1200 and was located near where Arthur Guinness brewed his first beer in 1755. Then virtually a shell, Mariga and Desmond set about the task of restoration. The ESB reportedly refused to connect the power as it was so dilapidated and most of the baths were outside being used as cattle troughs.
While Desmond was away, Mariga said she moved in with 400 books, a cat and a rifle. It was rumoured that Desmond spent almost a third of his inheritance on the castle.
Once restored, it became famous for their hospitality: the couple entertained regularly with glamorous guests such as Princess Margaret, Lord Snowdon, John Huston, Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, and Diana and Oswald Mosley, who by the then were