19/12/2025
This month is the centenary of Lady Ardilaun's death. Born in 1850, she married Arthur Edward Guinness when she was 19 and moved to shortly after. She passed away at the age of 75 in St. Stephen's Green in the presence of her cousin Katherine Everett who described the scene. 'As she lay dead, more beautiful that she had been in life, two long plaits below her fine chiseled features, and folds of ivory time - toned satin of her wedding dress draping her form, she seemed as remote from the vital person of the day before as one of the medieval Florentine tombs she so much resembled'. Countless mourners visited Katherine in the days to follow to pay their respects and the most poignant was 'an old woman whom she used to visit in a tenement house who said simply "God rest her soul, for she was good. She would sit here without a proud end on her, she was a friend to the sick and poor".
