Holland Days Source
Neither a Monday evening nor (apropos to an Irish shindig) drizzly weather could possibly dampen spirits. Not when it’s a party co hosted by the dashing Sir David Davies and the lively Lindy Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, last Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava. Her Ladyship is the artist known as Lindy Guinness. The setting is another draw: the mid Victorian splendour of Lindy’s Kensington city mansion (townhouse being too humble a term).
Banker and businessman Sir David is President of the Irish Georgian Society. In between rescuing companies and country houses, he leads a high profile social life, counting Christina Onassis among his exes. Like all the greats, he once worked at MEPC. This party is a book launch celebrating the publication about his primary Irish estate, Abbey Leix in County Laois. Averys Champagne is served with prawns and pea purée on silver spoons. There’s a metaphor lurking in that cutlery.
Two vast full depth bay windowed reception rooms on the piano nobile of the Marchioness’s five storey house easily accommodate the 100 guests. One room is hung with her paintings. Renowned fine art specialist Charles Plante is an admirer: “Lindy Guinness brings forth abstraction in painting that mirrors the Cubism of Cézanne and Picasso. Her works are irresistible.” The staircase walls are lined with David Hockney drawings. In fact there’s 20th century art everywhere. Lucien Freud was Lindy’s brother-in-law and old chums included Francis Bacon and Duncan Grant.
This party’s getting going. Everyone one should know is here. Interior decorator Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill is admiring the garden. Sir David’s glamorous sister Christine and her son Steffan are chatting in the entrance hall. They’re from Ballybla near Ashford, County Wicklow. Turns out they’re big fans of nearby Hunter’s Hotel. Writer Robert O’Byrne is conversing with designer and collector Alec Cobbe in the drawing room. “I still live in Newbridge House when I’m in Ireland,” confirms Alec. Broadcaster Sean Rafferty is busy playing down his former illustrious career in Northern Ireland where he’s still a household name. “You must visit my cottage in Donegal.” A party isn’t a party without interior decorator extraordinaire Nicky Haslam. “I didn’t realise I was such a style icon to you young guys!”
Fresh off the treadmill finishing the definitive guide to Russborough in County Wicklow, a mighty tome on another Irish country house, Abbey Leix was erudite architectural historian William Laffan’s next commission. Sir David bought the estate from the 1st Earl Snowdon’s nephew, 7th Viscount de Vesci, for £3 million in 1995. William’s book celebrates the restoration of the house and the rejuvenation of its 485 hectare estate.
“Thank you to Lindy for inviting us to her home,” Sir David announces. “It’s very much a home not a museum. Someone asked me earlier was this my house. I wish it was! The only thing better than a double 1st is a double Guinness! Lindy is a Guinness by birth and a Guinness by marriage. And thank you to William for all the hard work. I asked him to write 100 pages and three years later he’s written hundreds of pages! The photographs are beautiful but do make sure you all read a bit of William’s great text too!”
The Knight of Glin’s widow Madam Olda FitzGerald, mother-in-law of the actor Dominic West, appears. Sir David nods, “Desmond FitzGerald was a great inspiration to me. Bless him, bless the Irish Georgian Society. I feel very honoured to follow in his footsteps as President. There are three other people I wish to thank without whom the restoration of Abbey Leix wouldn’t have been possible. John O’Connell, the greatest conservation architect in Ireland. Val Dillon, the leading light of the antiques trade. John Anderson, former Head Gardener of Mount Usher Gardens and Keeper of the Gardens of Windsor Great Park. I had to prise him away from the Royals!”
“Bravo!” toasts the Marchioness. Her blue eyes twinkling, her jaunty scarf knotted as tightly as the curls of her silvery hair, Lindy chats about her other property, the very private Clandeboye, a late Georgian country house on an 800 hectare estate in County Down. She’s especially proud of her yoghurt production on the estate. “My mother-in-law gallantly rescued Clandeboye from debt and brought in the flamboyant designer Felix Harbord to do up the house in the 1950s. He designed the American Plantation style porte cochère with its four white Doric columns. The blank entrance wall of the 1st Marquess’s remodelling must have previously given such a drab first impression of the house. Felix also decorated Luttrellstown Castle, my aunt’s house near Dublin. Clandeboye is a house of dreams and enchantment that fills my thoughts and – now as I am older – the pleasure of being part of it grows greater.”
Lindy keeps talking, “I can remember arriving for the first time in 1962 and walking up the 1st Marquess’s halls in blurred amazement. I was a youthful debutante and had come to stay for a Clandeboye weekend. This first summer visit passed in days of happy exploration. We had arrived late in the evening when all was dark. I remember waking the following morning and looking out from my bedroom called Rome to see a magnificent interlocking landscape of greens that led down to a lake. It was especially beautiful – there were low horizontal bands of Irish mist allowing only certain parts of the landscape to be sharply defined. Oh you’ve got me reminiscing!” The Averys Champagne flows.
That was 2017. Where are the main players now? Just three years after this party, the hostess who was born Serena Belinda Rosemary Guinness died aged 79. The marquessate defunct, Sir John Blackwood, 5th Baron Dufferin, a descendent of her husband’s family, was upgraded to take over Clandeboye and 4 Holland Villas Road. Sir David Davies sold Abbey Leix in 2021 and his main base is Killoughter House near Ashford, County Wicklow. John O’Connell acted as architect for its restoration. Charles Plante is now recognised as an international tastemaker. In 2025 Robert O’Byrne published The Irish Country House A New Vision. Featured piles of the Emerald Isle include Killoughter House and Moyglare Manor, a former hotel near Maynooth in County Kildare. Madam Olda FitzGerald continues to add sparkle to high society events, not least Alfred Cochrane’s legendary 2024 summer garden party at Corke Lodge in County Wicklow. “A party is only as fabulous as its guests!” quipped Ireland’s most stylish host. William Laffan’s book on Abbey Leix became an instant collector’s item and is currently valued at over eight times its original price of £40.
