Earl of Mayo, Terence Bourke: The 10th Earl of Mayo, Terence Bourke, who has died aged 77, was born in England, but returned to his west of Ireland roots to build up a decorative marble business which continues to this day. He also helped to establish civil aviation in Connacht.
Life was never dull with Terence Bourke. He had a passion for music, flying, travelling and inventing, and he was not afraid to think outside normal parameters.
His best-known legacy is the invention of the lightweight stone veneer panel with his son Charles in Co Galway, at his company Marble Panels Ltd, during the late 1970s.
Once when he wanted grant aid, he took a sample of a stone coffee-table top to the holiday home of Michael Killeen in nearby Roundstone. Killeen, who was then head of the Industrial Development Authority, opened his door to find Terence tossing the table top to him. The point about the strength and lightness of the product was made and the grant obtained. The panel is still being produced by companies worldwide.
He loved to entertain at Doon House on the Corrib. Guests included actor Anjelica Huston, writer Ulick O'Connor and Tory politician Lord Hailsham (Quentin Hogg).
He had been a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm at Suez in 1956, later distinguishing himself as a skilled "stunt flyer". He then began a printing business and engaged in Conservative and Liberal politics in the south of England. Finally, he moved to Ireland and took over a marble business.
The title belonged to the long-abolished Irish House of Lords. The first earl claimed indirect descent from Granuaile O'Malley, the 16th-century pirate queen of Connemara.
The sixth earl is commemorated in the Mayo window of St Patrick's cathedral in Dublin. Richard Southwell Bourke was killed by a convict in the Andaman Islands while serving as viceroy of India. During the Famine, he served as chairman of the General Central Relief Committee for All Ireland in 1847 and was regarded as a "good landlord" by his tenants in Kildare.
Appointed chief secretary for Ireland 1852, at the age of 30, he was known as "the boy secretary", and was well regarded by Queen Victoria and prime minister Benjamin Disraeli.
Terence never made it into parliament, but had some success as a Conservative councillor in Hampshire before being defeated as a Liberal parliamentary candidate for Dorset South in 1964, when Harold Wilson famously ended "13 years of Tory misrule".
Terence's uncle Ulick had died in 1962 and, equipped with the title, he and his wife, Jane (née Harrison), with whom he had three sons, moved to Ireland in 1965. To his wife's dismay, before they found a home he had bought a business in Co Galway, producing Connemara marble for building and decorative purposes. Terence's passion for aviation led to the establishment of the Galway flying club, eventually resulting in the creation of Galway airport.
In fact, the family held two noble titles, that of Mayo and Naas. For many years the Kildare connection was more obvious.
Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of 1837 describes Naas: "The market-house is a neat and well-arranged building, erected by the Earl of Mayo, who is proprietor of the town." (Other families, including that of singer Chris de Burgh, might contest this.)
Later efforts by Dermot Robert Wyndham Bourke, the seventh Earl of Mayo and a member of the first senate, to oppose partition did not save the family home, Palmerstown House, near Naas, from the flames in 1922 as republicans burned big houses of the Anglo-Irish gentry. Palmerstown House has since been restored.
In 1987, the Mayos divorced and Terence married Sally Anne Matthews, with whom he had one son. They moved to a chateau in southwest France, where he raised deer and where he died. He is buried in the Anglican cemetery in Mondabat.
A memorial service was held for him yesterday in Clifden, Co Galway. His first wife, Jane, died in 1992. Sally, now the dowager Lady Mayo, survives him.
His son, heir to the Mayo title, Charles Bourke, who previously held the title of Baron Naas, continues to work in the marble business in Co Galway.
Terence Patrick Bourke: born August 26th, 1929; died September 22nd, 2006