THE wife of the man whose family donated Killarney National Park and the historic Muckross House to the people of Ireland has celebrated her landmark 100th birthday.
Mrs Elizabeth Vincent, who was married to the late business tycoon and philanthropist Billy Vincent, marked the occasion with family and friends at her home in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
Billy Vincent lived for the first 13 years of his life in Muckross House. In 1932, his father, Arthur Vincent and grandfather, William Bowers Bourn, presented Muckross House and 11,000 acres of Killarney National Park to the people.
Billy Vincent died in October 2012, at the age of 93. His remains were interred alongside his father in the family grave at Killegy, Killarney, overlooking Muckross Estate.
The 11,000-acre park and the Victorian mansion, which is now a museum, is one of the country’s most precious tourism jewels, attracting tens of thousands of visitors every year.
Mr Vincent, who died at his home in Monte Carlo, was a grandson of William Bowers Bourn who owned the hugely successful Empire Gold mine and Spring Valley water company in California before he purchased Muckross House.
The property, which dates back to 1843 and had been previously owned by the Herbert family, was the base for Queen Victoria when she visited Ireland in 1861.
Although the Bourn Vincent family travelled extensively, they always regarded Muckross and Killarney as their home and they invested huge sums of money maintaining and improving the property which overlooks the Lakes of Killarney.
The Bourne Vincent family donated Muckross House and Gardens to the Irish State in 1932, three years after the death of the then 10-year-old Billy’s mother Maud.
Billy Vincent always maintained close ties with Muckross throughout his life and was a very regular visitor to Killarney until his health began to fail.
Mr Vincent, who played a key role in the development of the Ireland Fund, was a personal friend of Prince Albert of Monaco.
