4 | BUSINESS | INTERVIEW ∼ Sunday Independent 2 June 2019 Howth Castle’s ghosts stay silent as a new era begins at the Demesne Former fund manager and heir to Howth Castle has just CURRICULUM sold the huge Demesne, a VITAE difficult but logical decision, Name he tells Fearghal O’Connor Julian Gaisford-St Lawrence Age INTERVIEW 61 Family Married, two grown up ULIAN Gaisford-St Lawrence children, Thomas and Alix is recounting the central role of Thomas St Lawrence, the Lives third Earl of Howth’s part in the Howth Castle foundation of Irish horseracing in the mid-1800s, when a voice Education can be heard calling loudly MA, Oxford from somewhere beyond in the musty halls of the otherwise Experience silent Howth Castle. 19 years as a fund manager He looks up with mild concern from an old in London, 19 years running Jpainting of his esteemed forebear towards where Howth Demesne the sound of his own name is ringing out, grow- ing louder and louder. Thankfully it is not the Pastimes sound of the dead generations of Gaisfords and Fishing, painting, walking, St Lawrences, whose portraits crowd the walls, racing, and shooting admonishing their descendent from the grave. Instead, his wife Anne dashes into the room, Favourite Book out of breath, relieved to have found him. Pride and Prejudice by Jane “They’ve been looking for you all morning, Austen your phone was off and they need you to sign,” she says, apologising profusely for the interruption to Favourite movie a conversation that has jumped from the slaying Withnail and I of 12th century Vikings by Gaisford-St Lawrence’s Norman ancestors as they conquered Howth to his Favourite holiday days away from here in the 1980s as a fund man- Syros in the Cyclades, Greece ager in the cut-throat world of London finance. Howth Castle is a building in which it is easy Favourite piece of artwork to get lost but Gaisford-St Lawrence knows every in the castle creaking floorboard, every tall tale, and every The Sea, a racehorse by John artefact collected by the family over eight centu- Ferneley ries, including a magnificent rare 1735 portrait of Jonathan Swift, a regular visitor to the estate. Most memorable visitor As eldest son and 30th heir to inherit the 530- Joan Rivers acre estate and castle, Julian Gaisford-St Lawrence was born into a magnificent inheritance which Favourite business advice brought with it a huge sense of responsibility. Listen to others; it is always Now after years of deliberation the culmination possible they might be right of that responsibility had arrived. and you wrong “They need you to sign the papers,” says Anne. And so, with a flustered apology, he dashes off to Career lesson meet the solicitors to finally sign over the estate As a fund manager, caveat to Irish investment group Tetrarch Capital for an emptor undisclosed — but doubtless very large — sum. Julian Gaisford-St *** Lawrence believes Howth Tetrarch’s approach two years ago presented an Castle is in safe hands opportunity to sell the estate to a single investor following its sale which the family believes will maintain its history, Photo: Frank McGrath heritage and iconic status. The investment firm — which previously bought Mount Juliet — is work- ing on a masterplan for the entire Demesne. It is planning a luxury hotel, championship golf course and new leisure centre, as well as some property, HOWTH HISTORY Turnover fell 30pc as recession bit deep and estate has come to an end essentially. So then you and Mrs Rankin who did the cooking and doled retail and sports and recreational amenities, all high-end courses like the K Club slashed prices. have got to identify who there is out there who out plates that needed licking. It wasn’t quite with strong access and links to Howth Village. Tastes too were changing, with men less willing to might do a decent job of taking it on. This place Downton Abbey. Those days ceased with my great It was, said Gaisford-St Lawrence, an ideal n In 1177, the son-in-law of Norman lord leave their families for a day of golf on a Saturday. has very considerable opportunities. I can see why uncle’s death. Even he thought he had economised solution but still not an easy decision: “It was John De Courcey, Sir Almerice, sailed into Even when a recovery of sorts began in 2011, it was Tetrarch want to buy it. They plan to build a much enormously… getting down to 12 gardeners,” emotionally difficult. I needed to bring all gener- Howth, then populated by Danes. After a washed away by a dreadful summer of bad weather higher grade of hotel on the site of the present one. he says with the hearty laughter that regularly ations of my family along through this process,” victorious battle on August 10, the feast of in 2012. The hotel also needed modernisation and It’s a fantastic site. Getting to that bigger vision is punctuates his reminisces. His father, aged 89, still lives in the opposite St Lawrence, the new lord of the headland finally closed its doors in 2014 after plans to lease going to be quite an expensive journey. And I’m He remembers Mr Russell, the head gardener, wing of the castle and will continue to live there took the saint’s name as his surname in it out as a nursing home were abandoned. a hotelier by default. I’m a better — or at least I asking his mother each morning which vegetable for the rest of his days. thanks. “I think that summer of bad weather in 2012 was — a better fund manager.” she would like for lunch. “My father has been here involved in the run- “When they went to accelerated a social trend away from golf that was So what is he going to do with the money from “I have always recognised I am very fortunate ning of the place since the mid-1950s. Undoubt- England they were told going to happen anyway,” he says. the sale? It is not a subject he is comfortable dis- to have been born in the circumstances which I edly, he considerably prolonged our tenure by his the land grab there was “We have a certain amount of investments and cussing and he pauses so long that the question am. In my experience, people who have made their investment in golf. It didn’t, in retrospect, solve over and that they we were selling investments to keep the whole almost floats off into the turrets above. own money tend to be more convinced of their the whole thing but it certainly gave us another should go west,” says thing going. That is not a long-term strategy. The “Well you are not going to come and suddenly own superiority than people who have inherited period. We could very easily have been Malahide his descendant Julian fund manager side of my brain was telling me this find two top-of-the-range Mercedes outside the it through the accident of birth. I’m actually a in 1974,” he says, referring to the sale of that castle Gainsford-St was not going to work long-term.” house because basically it doesn’t do it for me. very shy person and sometimes it was difficult to to the State by the Talbot family. Lawrence. As the economy improved, the opportunity Wealth is something that is very nice if you have overcome the barriers that come from where you In the early 1970s, his father Christopher was grew to do something radical with the huge estate. it, but it is not something to brag about. We, of have been brought up. still running the dairy farm on an estate that n Pirate queen He feared that doing nothing meant storing up course, will be in a situation to do things like buy “One of my ancestors complained in the late once stretched across 10,000 acres of what is now Grace O’Malley is said to have abducted the huge problems for his own son, the next in line. flats for my children.” 16th century that he was regarded as an English- Dublin’s northside, from St Anne’s Park, through then heir to the castle after she was refused “I needed my father to come to the same con- Tetrarch provided that opportunity and, now, man in Ireland and an Irishman in England,” he Raheny, Killester and Baldoyle. admission. He was released on the promise clusion… and he has. I give great credit to him for with the deal done, life carries on. says. “Coming from a background 500 years later “By the ’70s the dairy farm was not particularly the gates would remain open at dinner time doing so. He was brought up to inherit the castle, “No, I don’t think the ghosts of the past ad- that has embraced both cultures it is not that profitable. The real family occupation was to sell and the table would always be laid for an to be the heir, and perish the thought that you monish me,” he says. significantly different.” off a few acres every couple of years for develop- unexpected guest, a tradition the family has should sell it. But at some point you have got to But he would feel admonished if he had got But the sale marks the end of that phase for ment. So my father decided to convert land at the always maintained. recognise that times move on. The castle itself has himself into, for example, a situation where there the family, he says.