Henry Vivien Pierpont Conyngham, 8th Marquess Conyngham (born 25 May 1951), styled as Viscount Slane until 1974 and as Earl of Mount Charles from 1974 until 2009 and predominantly known as Lord Mount Charles, is an Anglo-Irish aristocrat who is best known for the rock concerts that he organises at his home Slane Castle, and for his column in the Irish Daily Mirror under the byline "Lord Henry".[1]
Henry Conyngham was born into an aristocratic family of partial Ulster-Scots descent, the eldest son of The 7th Marquess Conyngham (1924–2009) by his first wife, Eileen Wren Newsom.[2] The Conyngham dynasty are members of what used to be known as 'the Ascendancy', the Anglo-Irish aristocracy. He attended Harrow School before studying at Harvard University. Henry became known as the Earl of Mount Charles, a courtesy title, in 1974.
He succeeded his father in the Marquessate of Conyngham and other hereditary peerages in March 2009. However, in the Republic of Ireland, he is frequently referred to as 'Lord Mount Charles', his former courtesy title. He also inherited the title Baron Minster, of Minster Abbey in the County of Kent, created in 1821 in the Peerage of the United Kingdom for his ancestor, The 1st Marquess Conyngham, thereby giving the Marquesses Conyngham the automatic right to sit in the British House of Lords (until 1999).
Lord Conyngham and his wife, Iona Grimston, divide their time between Beauparc House [3] and Slane Castle in County Meath; the latter was the family's principal ancestral seat until it was badly damaged by fire in 1992, but has now been restored.
The then Lord Mount Charles unsuccessfully contested the Louth constituency for Fine Gael at the 1992 general election.[4]
In 1997, the then Lord Mount Charles stood for election to Seanad Éireann for the Dublin University constituency, again without success.[4] At the 2004 European Parliament election, he was approached by Fine Gael to enter the contest for selection as a Fine Gael candidate for the East constituency.[5] However, when the television presenter and agricultural journalist Maireád McGuinness emerged as a potential candidate, Mount Charles withdrew from the race.[5]
The Marquess Conyngham enjoys a high profile in Ireland as the author of a weekly column in the Irish Daily Mirror. He has been dubbed the rock and roll aristocrat or the rock and roll peer owing to the very successful series of rock concerts he has hosted since 1981,[6] held in the natural amphitheatre in the grounds of Slane Castle.[citation needed] These concerts have included performances by The Rolling Stones, Thin Lizzy, Queen, U2, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Oasis and Madonna. Henry, Lord Conyngham, received the Industry Award at the 2010 Meteor Awards.[7] In his autobiography Public Space–Private Life: A Decade at Slane Castle, he described his business career and the challenges of being an Anglo-Irish peer in modern Ireland, and how being Anglo-Irish has gradually become more accepted in the Republic of Ireland.
In 2015, Lord Conyngham opened an Irish whiskey distillery on the demesne of Slane Castle, and launched the "Slane Irish Whiskey" brand.[citation needed]
In 1971, Conyngham married Juliet Ann Kitson,[8] daughter of Major Robert Richard Buller Kitson (Grenadier Guards) and English interior decorator and J. Paul Getty's lover[9][10][11][12][13] Penelope de László (née Steele, later Baroness Keith of Castleacre). They have three children, a daughter and two sons, and were divorced in 1985:
In 1985, Conyngham married Lady Iona Charlotte Grimston (born 1953). She is the youngest daughter of The 6th Earl of Verulam. They have a daughter:
