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Irish Independent

The Irish Independent's View: Lord Henry Mount Charles's vision and courage leave many of us in his debt

The down-to-earth peer, who became king of the castle – Slane, in Co Meath – at the age of 24 was not born with the hauteur of the high-born. Instead of retreating behind high demesne walls and castle gates, he threw them open and invited the world inside. He credited necessity with luring the biggest stars in the world to the banks of the Boyne so that he could maintain the family pile. But it took vision and great courage to plunge headlong into the centre of rock'n'roll from such lofty heights. In 1980s Ireland, 'stadium rock' was what you stood on on the terraces at a GAA match. The dream that Mount Charles – and promoter Jim Aiken – had of bringing the biggest names in music to a grassy amphitheatre in Co Meath wasn't just bold, it was outrageous. Generations of Irish people who got to see Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, U2, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, David Bowie, Guns N' Roses and so many others – artists who might otherwise have given us a wide berth – will be forever in his debt. He conquered all, and with therapy came out the other side Lord Henry Mount Charles spoke about dalliances as a dope-smoking student at Harvard and later of battling his inner demons as a free-drinking, hard-living older man. He conquered all, and with therapy came out the other side. He was chastened, but wiser, for the exper­ience. When the Troubles raged in the bleak days of 1981 and Thin Lizzy played the first concert at Slane, Mount Charles spoke of republican threats for hosting a concert during the IRA hunger strike. ADVERTISEMENT But the show went on. He later said: 'I'm Irish and I firmly believe that 'this island is a sea fed by many streams'. I am part of one of those streams.' He was always candid and disarmingly frank. Asked by this paper in 2002 what it was like to come of age in the Swinging Sixties, he recalled an afternoon with his father. 'My father and I had a very funny conversation about this when I was 18. We were in London and he took me to his club. I thought, 'I've done something terrible, I'm going to get caned'. 'So he ordered a double brandy and I said to myself, 'OK, I'd better have one too'. Then he turned around and said, 'Have you?'. I said, 'Yes'. And he said, 'Good'. That was the first, and only, conversation we had about sex.' Tennessee Williams said: 'There is only one true aristocracy, and that is the aristocracy of passionate souls.' If passion is the hallmark, Lord Henry was an aristocrat to the core.