Desmond Guinness

Born 8 September 1931, Guinness was the second son of the author and brewer Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne and Diana Mitford; his elder brother was Jonathan. She divorced Guinness after five years and married the head of the British fascist Blackshirt movement, Oswald Mosley, in Berlin in 1936. Due to Mitford's interest in fascism, her father-in-law had arranged for surveillance, including by one of Guinness's governesses, from 1935 onwards, and MI5 even noted a plan for her to visit Hitler with her sons. Mitford was interned in 1940 and Guinness later recalled visiting her in Holloway prison when he was 10.[3]

He was educated at Eton and Gordonstoun and studied French and Italian at Christ Church, Oxford.[4] After completing National Service, he moved to his father's estate near the Phoenix Park in Ireland, as his father lived for six months a year in Ireland, and his mother had also moved to the country with Oswald Mosley, first living in Clonfert, then in Fermoy.[3]

Guinness was married at Oxford in 1954 to Princess Henriette Marie-Gabrielle von Urach, daughter of Prince Albrecht von Urach and a granddaughter of King Mindaugas II of Lithuania, who was generally known as "Mariga." Guinness bought Leixlip Castle and its residual 180-acre farm for 15,500 pounds, one third of his assets, in 1958, and he and his wife settled there.[3]

Mariga Guinness moved to London alone in 1969, later lived in County Antrim, and later still returned to Leixlip Castle. The Guinnesses divorced in 1980, and Mariga died some years later.[5]

Castletown house

Guinness and Mariga founded the Irish Georgian Society in April 1958 to help to preserve Irish architecture of all periods. This was timely as the Irish planning laws were enacted only from 1963.[6]

The IGS became involved in numerous projects and started publishing quarterly bulletins. Some early preservations or campaigns were at: Damer House (County Tipperary), The Conolly Folly (County Kildare), Mountjoy Square, Tailors' Hall and Hume Street (Dublin) and the Dromana Gateway in County Waterford.

The IGS also held Georgian cricket matches played to the rules of 1744.

In 1967–79 the Guinnesses bought and started to preserve Castletown House, in Celbridge, Kildare, said to be the finest Palladian house in Ireland.[7][8]

In 1984 Guinness married Penelope Cuthbertson, daughter of the socialite Teresa Jungman, and a granddaughter of the artist Nico Wilhelm Jungmann.[9]

In more recent years Guinness has founded a scholarship for students of architecture.[10][11]

He stood down as President of the IGS in 1990.

He has also been a member of Irish groups such as the Iveagh Trust, the CKAS,[16] the RIAC[17] and the Kildare Street & University Club.

Guinness wrote the following books himself:

• Portrait of Dublin (New York, Viking Press, 1967)
• Georgian Dublin (Batsford, B.T., Ltd.1979) ISBN 978-0-7134-1908-5

three further books with Julius Trousdale Sadler:

• Mr Jefferson, architect (New York, Viking, 1973) ISBN 978-0-670-49261-9
• Palladio: A Western Progress (New York, 1976) ISBN 978-0-670-53732-7
• Newport preserv'd : architecture of the 18th century (New York : Viking Press, 1982) ISBN 978-0-670-50938-6

two with William Ryan:

• Irish Houses and Castles; with William Ryan. (London: Thames & Hudson 1973).
• The White House: An Architectural History (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980). ISBN 978-0-07-054352-2

and two with Jacqueline O'Brien, wife of the famous racehorse trainer Vincent O'Brien:

• Dublin – A Grand Tour (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1994)
• Great Irish Houses and Castles (Harry N. Abrams, Inc.) ISBN 978-0-8109-3365-1 (December 1998) and in paperback (Weidenfeld & Nicolson September 1993) ISBN 978-0-297-83236-2.

Guinness has written numerous articles, including: Thomas Jefferson: Visionary Architect. Horizon, 22 (1979): 51–55.