Painting plain for Guinness

THE SOCIAL NETWORK: Desmond Guinness will travel from Leixlip Castle on Thursday to open an exhibition of Harry Durdin-Robertson's work at the Oriel Gallery on Clare Street. Durdin-Robertson grew up in Huntington Castle, Co Carlow, and went to Headfort School and Clongowes before his formal art training in Florence.

In an interview a couple of weeks ago in the Wall Street Journal, Guinness’s son, Patrick, told JS Marcus he wondered, at the age of five, “Why don’t other people live in castles? They’re nice.” Patrick is the new president of the Irish Georgian Society, which was founded by his parents, and his Georgian home in Co Kildare featured heavily in the piece: “Ireland’s recent boom and more recent bust are on show in Naas . . . Around here you can find relatively new housing divisions rubbing up against newly derelict, half-finished real-estate developments. But the roller coaster of recent Irish history seems to stop at the gates of Furness House.”

The pictures at Durdin-Robertson’s exhibition will be framed, which is more than can be said for a picture hanging at Furness House. Marcus mentions a painting of one of Guinness’s ancestors, unframed since the 1950s, when a cousin decided they wanted the frame: “Very often with these old portraits the frame is worth more than the picture,” said Guinness.