Valentine MacSwiney

Valentine Emanuel Patrick MacSwiney, 1st Marquis MacSwiney of Mashanaglass (24 December 1871 – 7 May 1945) was a Franco-Irish officer of the papal household.

In 1898, he was created a hereditary marquis in the Papal nobility.

MacSwiney retired in 1910, on his second marriage, and moved to England, where his daughters were born. In 1914 he and his German wife settled in Ireland, where he joined the Irish Volunteers and later enjoyed a second public career under the Irish Free State.

Early life Born in Paris, MacSwiney was the son of Valentine Patrick MacSwiney, a French banker of Irish origins, and his Polish wife Emma Isabella Countess Konarska.

Through his mother, MacSwiney was a first cousin of Sir Vernon Kell, a British Army general and founder and first Director of the British Security Service MI5. Papal career In 1897 MacSwiney was elected as Vice-President of the International Scientific Congresses of Catholics at Fribourg, and in 1900 held the same office at Munich. That year, he was sent as Envoy Extraordinary of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre to the Crown Prince of Belgium. He served as Privy Chamberlain to Pope Pius X from 1904 to 1909. In 1904, he was a member of the Apostolic Legation to Ireland for the consecration of Armagh Cathedral, and in 1908 was a special delegate for receiving diplomatic missions on the occasion of Pius X's Jubilee.

In 1898, MacSwiney was created by Leo XIII a hereditary Roman marquis.

Career in Ireland In 1914, the Irish Republican Brotherhood formed the Irish Volunteers, in which MacSwiney enlisted as a private. When the movement split, he remained with the pro-John Redmond National Volunteers and became its Inspecting Officer for County Kerry. In 1916, at the time of the Easter Rising, MacSwiney was arrested by the British and held with Count Plunkett at Dublin Castle, but was not interned.

MacSwiney represented the Irish Free State government at the celebration of the 1300th anniversary of Saint Columbanus at Bobbio and was a member of the Irish delegation to the fourth and fifth Assemblies of the League of Nations at Geneva in 1923-1924. Owen Charles Alexander Evelyn Patrick Valentine Diego de Avila MacSwiney, born in Dublin on 30 July 1916, who later succeeded his father as Marquis MacSwiney of Mashanaglass.

MacSwiney's second wife died in 1938. In 1944, he married thirdly Miss Constance Bradfield-England, of Sally Park, Clondalkin. He died in Dublin aged 73 and was buried in the churchyard at Shandon, County Cork.

In 1954, the second Marquis MacSwiney married Mathilde Maria Josefa Thaddaa von Korff (1916–2009). A Bachelor of Laws of University College Dublin, he was an author and dress designer.

Honours Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem Order of St. Gregory the Great Sovereign Military Order of Malta, 1932 Fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland

Publications

Valentine Emmanuel Patrick MacSwiney de Mashanaglass (1re Marquis), Le Portugal et le Saint-Siège (Paris: A. Picard et Fils, 1899) "Notes on the Book of Lecan", by The Marquess MacSwiney of Mashanaglass, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxxviii, 1902, C3 MACSWINEY, Patrick, of Mashanaglass, Marquis, A propos du Home Rule et de la résistance de l'Ulster (Paris, Octavo, 60 pages, c. 1913) "Notes on the formation of the first two Irish regiments in the service of Spain in the 18th century" by MacSwiney, Patrick Valentine Emmanuel, The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Vol. XVII, 1927, pp. 7-20 "Some unpublished letters of the Count d'Avaux in the National Library of Ireland" by MacSwiney, Patrick Valentine Emmanuel, Marquis of Mashanaglass, in Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Vol. XL, Sect. C, April1932, pp. 296-307