The Guinness heir on the future of the Iveagh Markets: 'It's going to turn into a jewel in the crown'

• Published date: 17 March 2024
• Author: Deirdre Falvey
• Publication title: Irish Times: Web Edition Articles (Dublin, Ireland)

I arrive at his new Dublin home, appropriately in the Liberties, and he makes us tea, with teabags in mugs. Then he adds milk to the tea, not into the mug beforehand

Ned Guinness's great-great-grandfather was Edward Cecil Guinness, head of the eponymous brewery (founded by his great-grandfather Arthur), whose philanthropic mark is indelible in Dublin, from the Iveagh Trust to St Patrick's Park. Edward Cecil was made first Earl of Iveagh in 1919, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Ned, the fourth earl, has been prominent in trying to resolve the long-running debacle over Dublin's Iveagh Markets.

He lives in a village house at the family's 22,486-acre Elveden Estate in Suffolk, England, the hall of which has hosted dramas from The Crown to Eyes Wide Shut. His new Dublin base is a lovely house, though somewhat unexpected for a lord: a typical artisan's terraced two-up, two-down on a Dublin 8 street. The front door opens into the sittingroom, broken through into the kitchen. Pictures on the yellow walls include great-grandfather Rupert (Edward Cecil's son), and a small Rose Barton Clanbrassil Street scene.

Guinness is quiet-spoken with a soft English accent. He's likable, gentle, courteous and thoughtful. He is open, occasionally vague, and his conversation is punctuated by laughter. Aware of his privilege, he seems conscious of using it for wider good. His wish to acknowledge various perspectives, about, say, his background, or the markets tangle, leads to charming, sometimes convoluted sentences, and he has an almost courtly turn of phrase; "please heavens".

Guinness's (sole) passport is Irish. Through university and adult life he has been based in Britain "but always with Irish things going on. Farmleigh until I was 30. The farm outside Ashbourne, that was always in my life. The Iveagh Trust [providing affordable housing]. I've been a trustee for a good period. It's a powerhouse. And seeing what's going on with Diageo and the Guinness brand."

He's in Ireland frequently, has "an ambition to spend more time. I love it here." Stansted is "easy" from Suffolk. He sold Farmleigh to the State in 1999 for €29.2 million, and hasn't had a home here for years; this Liberties house is part of "another orientation".

Both his sons, Arthur (21) and Rupert (18), were brought up in Suffolk "but I've been very keen to ensure they have ... We support Irish rugby, the lot of us. The Department of Foreign Affairs kindly hosted us to look 'round Iveagh House" on Stephen's Green, once Edward Cecil's home and now the department's headquarters. Both sons represented Ireland in downhill skiing. "The Irish team is terrific. They've waved the tricolour. I'm very proud of my international sons representing their country."

We had met previously, at a screening of Sé Merry Doyle's Alive Alive O documentary about Dublin street traders, and Guinness was greeted warmly at every turn, a champion of reviving Iveagh Markets.

Built by Edward Cecil Guinness by 1906, and gifted to the city, the gracious Edwardian indoor markets complex has been vacant and decaying since closing in 1997. It's the subject of a long-running legal battle between Dublin City Council (DCC), Ned Guinness and hotelier Martin Keane, to whom the council sold a long lease for the markets it was custodian of, in 1997, but who has not developed them (as hotel, restaurant, market) despite securing planning permission in 2007 and 2012.

More recently a deadlock developed, where the rights, obligations and potential of Iveagh Markets were lost in legal battles and unresolved High Court mediation, while the historic buildings, neglected and decaying, were more at risk with every winter. Concern about the structure's fragility, and dismay at the ongoing legal battle, grew among city councillors, local campaigners and the wider public...