Lord Henry Mount Charles: The reluctant earl who made ancestral home a rock 'n' roll touchstone

Extra.ie​

20-06-2025

He might have been known as the rock 'n' roll aristocrat, but Lord Henry Mount Charles never held any airs or graces.
Despite being a marquess and the owner of Slane Castle, Henry was a familiar face around the village and well-loved by those who attended his many concerts.
At gig time, as 80,000 people flocked to the stately home, it was not unusual to see Henry in his panama hat and trademark single red sock mingling with the crowds. Lord Henry Mount Charles. Pic: RollingNews.ie
As his family announced his death on Wednesday night after a 'long and valiant battle' with lung cancer, tributes from huge names in rock 'n' roll who had graced the stage of Slane Castle came pouring in.
And it is no wonder, as Henry Vivien Pierpont Conyngham changed the face of music in Ireland and made us a country who could compete on the world stage, bringing some of the biggest names in music to Ireland, a place that many outside it had previously associated with bombings and religion.
Born on May 23, 1951, in Dublin's Rotunda Hospital, Henry was the oldest son of Fredrick Coyningham, the 7th Marquess Coyningham and Eileen Wren Newsam. Lord Henry Mount Charles. Pic: RTÉ
The Coyninghams were Anglo-Irish aristocrats descended from Ulster Scots heritage and Frederick was a peer.
As such, Henry and his two younger brothers Patrick and Simon lived what he described as an 'upstairs, downstairs' existence, similar to many aristocratic families – the first time he dined with his parents was at the age of 12. He was then sent to Harrow public school in London before heading to university in Harvard.
But the breakup of his parents' marriage had a big impact on Henry and his younger brothers, and Henry had to step up to be the lord of the manor.
'As far as I was concerned, my father was deserting his responsibilities,' he said in an RTÉ documentary. 'My mother continued to live at the castle and things sort of went on like it was before, although everything was different. I was expected at a very early age to replace my father and it felt bizarre.' Lord Henry Mountcharles with his wife Iona and daughter Tamara at Oxegen music festival in punchestown, Kildare. Pic: Arthur Carron/Collins
Harvard gave Henry a huge amount of freedom.
He was a child of the Sixties, he loved music and the wilder side of life.
'I will put my hand up and say I misbehaved in my first year at Harvard,' he said.
'I smoked a lot of dope and did what liberated students did in those days and I enjoyed myself.'
He met his first wife, American Juliet Ann Kitson, and the pair moved to London where they had their first child Alex.
Henry was working in publishing for Faber and Faber when, at the age of just 25, his father forced him to make a tough decision. Lord Henry Mount Charles. Pic: Courtesy of Slane Castle
A new wealth tax being brought in by the Irish State meant Frederick was being faced with a huge bill and though rich in assets, he didn't have a huge income. The castle could either be taken over by Henry or sold.
'I really felt I had no choice,' Henry said recently.
'Even though it was, as it were, my heritage what I was born to deal with it was quite daunting.'
The farm that was on the castle site was no longer viable as the family couldn't pay the wages to sustain it. Lord Henry Mount Charles. Pic: Arthur Carron/Collins Photos
But Henry had a few other ideas. His parents had previously leased the castle to Hollywood to film the Rock Hudson classic Captain Lightfoot, even making a cameo appearance themselves, and this was something Henry decided to reinvigorate to gain some cash for the castle coffers.
He also opened the castle up to visitors, entertaining film stars who needed privacy behind the castle walls whilst filming for movies and the occasional TV series took place in the grounds.
But it was Henry's love of music that created the castle's biggest earner. First of all he opened a nightclub but then had the idea to stage a concert at Slane, something that changed everything for the castle's fortunes and for the Irish music scene.
'I decided Slane was a natural for open air rock 'n' roll the key to it was finding someone I could work with,' he said of the castle's now-famed natural amphitheatre.
That 'someone' came in the form of Belfast promoter Eamonn McCann and Dublin's Denis Desmond of MCD.
Thin Lizzy became the first act to play Slane in 1981, supported by a lesser-known band called U2, but though 18,000 people turned up, the show was not without its risks.
Across the border in the North, the Troubles were raging and tensions were high in Meath. Lord Henry, due to his title, became a focus for the ire of some sections of republicanism.
'It was very dark,' Henry said of the time.
'There were riots in Dublin, there was a situation in front of the British Embassy.'
'I come from a complex background – I got some very unpleasant mail and I got threatening phone calls in the middle of the night.
'But I'm a child of the Sixties, I grew up on The Kinks, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and my anthem was things like We Gotta Get Out of This Place.' Former Spice Girls singer Mel C with Lord Henry Mount Charles at Slane Castle. Pic: EamonnFarrell/RollingNews.ie
It made Henry more determined to go ahead with his plan and by the time Thin Lizzy struck their first chord, 18,000 people witnessed Slane becoming Ireland's premier rock 'n' roll venue.
This cemented Henry's friendship with U2 who also recorded their hit album The Unforgettable Fire at the castle.
It was a terrible irony, then, that Slane would later fall victim to a terrible fire that gutted parts of the castle.
It took ten years to restore the seat to its former glory and the concerts organised by Mountcharles and various promoters paid for the refurbishment.
There were turbulent concerts too – after Bob Dylan's show in the 1980s, thugs vandalised the village, causing havoc.
In 1995 two concert goers died trying to swim across the River Boyne to sneak into the gig by REM and Oasis.
But for the most part, the concerts put Slane – and Henry – on the map, including the Bruce Springsteen gig in 1985 – the first date on his Born in the USA tour.
While his first marriage to Juliet ended in divorce in 1982, the couple had three children Alex, Henrietta and Gerald. Lord Henry Mount Charles. Pic: RTÉ
He met his second wife, Iona, daughter of the 6th Earl of Verluam, on a champagne-tasting trip and they were married in 1986 and their child Tamara was born in 1991.
In person, Henry was erudite and entertaining, intelligent and fun with an unassuming air about him.
As an Anglo-Irish peer he was styled Viscount Slane until 1974 and then Earl of Mountcharles from 1974 until 2009 when, on the death of his father, he became The Most Hon Henry Vivien Pierpont Conyngham, 8th Marquess Conyngham. The Marquesses Conyngham held the right to sit in the British House of Lords, until 1999.
He was never really a 'lord' but didn't like being called an earl, so the rock 'n' roll Lord would do.
But politics and justice were also very important to him throughout his life, particularly the politics of Ireland.
He unsuccessfully contested the Louth constituency for Fine Gael at the 1992 general election. He was also unsuccessful in his bid for a Seanad seat in 1997.
But his interest in the subjects never waned and for many years he wrote a popular column on the subject for the Irish Daily Mirror. Lord Henry Mountcharles with Oasis band members Noel Gallagher and Gem Archer at Slane Castle. Pic: Arthur Carron/Collins Photos
After a diagnosis of lung cancer in 2014, his health suffered, but Henry's entrepreneurial spirit didn't wane. He decided to open a distillery at Slane Castle with his eldest son Alex.
The Slane Irish whiskey brand was sold to Brown-Forman, the company behind Jack Daniel's, which invested €50million and established a new distillery and visitor centre at the seat.
He handed over the running of the castle to his eldest son Alex while he and Iona spent most of their time in Beauparc House, a smaller stately home in Navan which had been left to him by a relative.
Though dogged by health problems due to his cancer in his later years, Henry very much approved of the decision to host the first series of The Traitors Ireland in Slane.
It was something his son Alex said he was very pleased about as it was a return to the castle's previous life as a TV set.
But sadly, one of Ireland's last aristocrats won't be around to see it screened when it airs this summer.
And the country has lost a colourful character who changed the face of the entertainment business and brought some of the biggest names in the world to a tiny village in Co. Meath.
'My life has been a mixture of great good fortune and adversity,' he once said. 'I just try to see my life as a journey.'