Desmond was the second son of Bryan, Lord Moyne, and Diana Mitford.  He was bron in 1931.  He went on to become a well known art historian, writer and conservationist.  He co-founded the revived Irish Georgian Society in 1958.  The principle aim of the society is the preservation of Ireland’s rich architectural heritage.  Achievements of the society include saving threatened great buildings such as Castletown in county Kildare, Danier House in Tipperary and Tailors Hall in Dublin, among many others.

Sarah Dapineau & Desmond Guinness
 

MARIGA GUINNESS
(1932 - 1989) co-founder of the Irish Georgian Society
Born 21 Sep 1932, London

From 1935 to 1938 she lived in Japan with her father, who was on the staff of the German Embassy in Tokyo. She spent the war years in England with an adopted aunt and a maternal grandmother. On an extended visit to Oxford she met Desmond Guinness, and they were married in 1954. Her aunt had forbidden her to live in Ireland, which, she said, 'was full of Fenians and consumptives,' but her husband bought Leixlip Castle, County Kildare, and they set about refurbishing it. She chose Irish pictures, prints and furniture and used strong colours on the walls to counteract Irish greys and greens. Many famous interior decorators came from America and Britain to study her work and wonder at her rare gift of combining unlikely objects to create memorable effects, and other owners were encouraged by her example to restore their country houses.

In 1983 she and her husband were divorced and she went to live in a dower house of Birr Castle, by courtesy of the Earl of Rosse. She suffered a severe heart attack on the ferry from Holyhead on 7 May 1989 and died in hospital in Dún Laoghaire the following day. Survived by her children, Patrick and Marina, and her former husband.