Oonagh Guinness (22 February 1910 – 2 August 1995) was an Anglo-Irish socialite, society hostess and art collector, and the second wife of
Dominick Browne, 4th Baron Oranmore and Browne.
Early life
She was born on 22 February 1910, the youngest of the three daughters of
Ernest Guinness
Arthur Ernest Guinness (2 November 1876 – 22 March 1949) was an Irish engineer and a senior member of the Guinness family. He usually went by the name of Ernest.
Family
Ernest was the second son of brewing magnate Edward Guinness, 1st Earl o ...
(1876–1949) and Marie Clothilde Russell (1880–1953), daughter of
Sir George Russell, 4th Baronet
Sir George Russell, 4th Baronet (23 August 1828 – 7 March 1898) was a British barrister and Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1898.
Russell was the third son of Sir Henry Russell, 2nd Baronet and his wife Mari ...
. Ernest Guinness was the second son of
Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh
Edward Cecil Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh, (10 November 1847 – 7 October 1927) was an Irish businessman and philanthropist. A member of the prominent Anglo-Irish Guinness family, he was the head of the family's eponymous brewing business, ma ...
(1847–1927).
She believed that she was "the favourite of her father's three blonde and blue-eyed daughters".
Along with her two sisters,
Aileen
Aileen is a feminine given name. Its common used in Ireland. It comes from the Turkish name Aylin, which means "Halo of the moon". Notable people with the name include:
* Aileen Adams (born 1923), British consultant anaesthetist
*Aileen Allen (1 ...
and
Maureen Maureen is a female given name. In Gaelic, it is Máirín, a pet form of ''Máire'' (the Irish cognate of Mary), which is derived from the Hebrew Miriam. The name has sometimes been regarded as corresponding to the male given name Maurice.
Some ...
, the Guinness sisters were celebrated as the ''Golden Guinness Girls'' of 1920s British society.
Public life
Oonagh was a prominent hostess, particularly after her second divorce in 1950, when the
Luggala Estate became a centre of Irish social life. "Oonagh somehow imbued Luggala with enchantment. Nobody could keep away: Dublin intelligentsia, literati, painters, actors, scholars, hangers-on, toffs, punters, poets, social hang-gliders were attracted to Luggala as to nowhere else in Ireland — perhaps even in Europe, from where many would come. And the still centre of this exultant, exuberant chaos was Oonagh."
Personal life
At age 19, Oonagh was engaged to the Hon. Philip Kindersley, the second son of the banker
Robert Kindersley, 1st Baron Kindersley
Robert Molesworth Kindersley, 1st Baron Kindersley (21 November 1871 – 20 July 1954) was an English businessman, stockbroker, merchant banker, and public servant who organised the National Savings movement.
Background
Kindersley was born ...
, and her father gave her
Luggala
Luggala (), also called Fancy Mountain () at , is the 230th-highest peak in Ireland on the Arderin scale. Being below , it does not rank on the Vandeleur-Lynam or Hewitt scales. Luggala is in the northeastern section of the Wicklow Mounta ...
, an 18th-century hunting lodge in
County Wicklow
County Wicklow ( ; ga, Contae Chill Mhantáin ) is a county in Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is bordered by t ...
, an hour south of
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
.
In 1929, she married the Hon. Philip Kindersley, and they had three children,
though only one lived to reach adulthood:
Gay Kindersley
Gay Kindersley (2 June 1930 – 21 April 2011) was a British champion amateur jump jockey, horse trainer and a "drinker, gambler and serial womaniser".
Early life
Gay Kindersley was born on 2 June 1930, the son of the Hon. Philip Kindersley, and ...
(1930–2011),
National Hunt
In horse racing in the United Kingdom, France and Republic of Ireland, National Hunt racing requires horses to jump fences and ditches. National Hunt racing in the UK is informally known as "jumps" and is divided into two major distinct branches: ...
jockey and
Jockey Club
The Jockey Club is the largest commercial horse racing organisation in the United Kingdom. It owns 15 of Britain's famous racecourses, including Aintree, Cheltenham, Epsom Downs and both the Rowley Mile and July Course in Newmarket, amo ...
steward.
The marriage was dissolved in 1936.
In 1936, she married
Dominick Browne, 4th Baron Oranmore and Browne, and they had three children:
(1939–2018), an unnamed son (1943–1943), and
Tara Browne
Tara Browne (4 March 1945 – 18 December 1966) was a London-based Irish socialite and heir to the Guinness fortune. His December 1966 death in a car crash was an inspiration for the Beatles' song " A Day in the Life".
Early life
Browne was ...
(1945–1966), who died in a car accident.
Oonagh and Dominick divorced in 1950.
From 1957 to 1965, she was married to Miguel Ferreras Aciro (1927–1999), a New York dress designer.
She died at Luggala on 2 August 1995.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guinness, Oonagh
1910 births
1995 deaths
Mereworth
Mereworth is a village and civil parish near the town of Maidstone in Kent, England. The Wateringbury Stream flows through the village and powered a watermill, the site of which now lies within the grounds of Mereworth Castle.
Mereworth is pronou ...
Oranmore and Browne
British socialites
Oonagh
Oona is a feminine given name. It is an Anglicisation of the Irish-language name ''Úna''. Apart from in Ireland, it is also a popular name in Finland.
People with the name Oona
*Oona Brown (born 2004), American ice dancer
*Oona Chaplin (born 198 ...
Kindersley family