| Viscountcy Dillon | |
|---|---|
  Blazon
| |
| Creation date | 16 March 1622 |
| Created by | King James VI and I |
| Peerage | Peerage of Ireland |
| First holder | Theobald Dillon, 1st Viscount Dillon |
| Present holder | Henry Benedict Charles Dillon, 22nd Viscount Dillon |
| Heir apparent | the Hon. Francis Charles Robert Dillon |
| Status | Extant |
| Motto | DUM SPIRO SPERO (While I breathe I hope) |
17th Viscount Dillon.
Viscount Dillon, of Costello-Gallen in the County of Mayo, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1622 for Theobald Dillon, Lord President of Connaught. The Dillons were a Hiberno-Norman landlord family from the 13th century in a part of County Westmeath called 'Dillon's Country'. His great-grandson, the seventh Viscount, was a supporter of the Catholic King James II of England and was outlawed after the Glorious Revolution. He founded 'Dillon's Regiment' of the Irish Brigade in the French Army, which was supported by the Wild Geese and achieved success at Fontenoy in 1745.
However, his son Henry, the eighth Viscount, managed to obtain a reversal of the outlawry in 1694 and later served as Lord Lieutenant of County Roscommon. His younger brother, Lieutenant-General Arthur Dillon, was given the French title of Count Dillon in 1711 and was also created "Viscount Dillon" and "Earl of Dillon" by James Francis Edward Stuart, the Jacobite claimant to the throne. His son Henry, the eleventh Viscount, was a Colonel in the French Army, but Dillon's Regiment was disbanded in 1793 due to the turmoils of the French Revolution. His son Charles, the twelfth Viscount, notably represented Westbury in Parliament and conformed to Anglicanism in 1767. His son Henry Augustus, the thirteenth Viscount, sat as a Member of Parliament for Harwich and County Mayo. His great-grandson, the nineteenth Viscount, was a Brigadier in the Army. As of 2014[update] the title is held by the latter's great-grandson, the twenty-second Viscount, who succeeded his father in 1982.
