St. Patrick's Day Parade
12:30 pm, Saturday, March
13, 2010
On 4th Ave from Jefferson, downtown Seattle
GRAND MARSHAL
The Right Hon. Desmond Guinness
The Grand Marshal of Seattle’s 2010 St. Patrick’s Day Parade will be the Rt. Hon. Desmond Guinness, the great, great, great, great grandson of Arthur Guinness who founded Guinness Brewery over 250 years ago. Desmond is also an Irish author on Georgian art and architecture and a conservationist, and is the founder and past-President of the Irish Georgian Society.
Born September 8, 1931, he was the second son of Lord Moyne, the author and brewer, and Diana Mitford, one of the controversial Mitford Sisters. Educated at Eton, Gordonstoun and Christ Church, Oxford, Desmond bought Leixlip Castle in Co. Kildare in 1958 and that same year, with his first wife, Mariga (the former Princess Marie Gabrielle), founded the Irish Georgian Society to help to preserve Irish architecture of all periods.
His conservation work has been recognized by many American and English cultural groups, and in 1980 he was made an honorary Doctor of Laws at Trinity College Dublin. In 2006 he was presented with a Europa Nostra award by the Queen of Spain. His many publications include Georgian Dublin; Irish Houses and Castles; The White House, An Architectural History; and his most recent publication Dublin – A Grand Tour.
While in Seattle, Desmond also plans to visit Vancouver, BC, where the Guinness family still owns property and where he plans to view the Lions Gate Bridge which the Guinness family owned until 1955 when it was sold to the province of British Columbia.
Desmond still lives at Leixlip Castle in Co. Kildare and this will be his first ever visit to Seattle or Vancouver.
Leixlip Castle, Co. Kildare, Ireland, the home of the Rt. Hon. Desmond Guinness, below
Below, Desmond Guinness with Marianne Faithfull (Left) and Mick Jagger (right) at Leixlip Castle, Co. Kildare, in 1968
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