In January 1965, Princess Margaret and her husband, Lord Snowdon, were effectively trapped for 48 hours at Abbeyleix House in County Laois after a series of IRA attacks cut off power and made the roads impassable. The incident, which has been largely forgotten, is now the subject of a new novel by Emily Hourican, A House in Winter.
The couple had arrived for a private visit to Lord Snowdon's sister, Susan, who was married to Lord de Vesci and living at Abbeyleix House. It was not their first trip; a few years earlier they had enjoyed a two-week stay, motoring around in a small red sports car and visiting friends, including socialite and author Desmond Guinness.
Security concerns and early warnings
Questions were asked in the Irish Parliament about the cost of providing security for the visit, which was handled by the Irish police force, An Garda Siochana. But the idea that something might happen to the sister of the reigning British monarch on Irish soil was considered too terrible to contemplate.
In the days before her arrival, the anti-Margaret campaign ramped up. “Royalty And Jones Go Home” was daubed on the fountain in the middle of Abbeyleix, and leaflets began to circulate titled “No Foreign Power on Irish Soil” and “We are the People’s Republic, not the Crown’s colony”.
The IRA in 1965 was a declining organisation, but still existed. It was a prescribed organisation, and membership carried a six-month jail sentence. For them, this was an opportunity for a high-profile statement.
The attack and the 48-hour siege
On the car ride from Shannon airport to Abbeyleix House, an attempt was made by a grey Ford containing four men to cut in between the car carrying Princess Margaret and Snowdon, and the security following them. The attempt failed, but uneasiness grew when it was realised that the crowd in front of the gates of Abbeyleix House also contained men with caps pulled low over their eyes, handing out leaflets.
That night, under cover of darkness, a petrol bomb was thrown over the walls. Then another. The second damaged power lines and took out an electricity substation, plunging the house and surrounding houses into darkness. At the same time, trees were felled outside the gates and along the road, branches sawn and hacked so as to make the road impassable. Margaret and Snowdon were trapped inside a house without power for 48 hours until the roads were cleared and they could leave.
Margaret issued no public statement, but was reported to have gone quietly to bed at midnight.
The personal background
Emily Hourican's novel explores what might have happened inside the house during those locked-in hours, drawing on her understanding of both Margaret and Snowdon at that time. They were five years married by then, and both their children had been born. Margaret had apparently suffered what would now be called post-natal depression after the birth of both children, but particularly badly after the second child, Sarah, born eight months before that visit.
Following the death of her father, King George VI, she once admitted to a royal biographer, “there was an awful sense of being in a black hole. I remember feeling tunnel-visioned and didn’t really notice things”.
Snowdon's unhappiness began to take expression in a series of cruel notes he left for his wife – tucked into the book she was reading, or the gloves she was wearing. It got to the stage where she no longer opened her chest of drawers – she asked a maid to do it, in case one of the poisonous notes was inside. “You look like a cheap pantomime dame”, read one, “24 reasons why I hate you”, was another. (“I can't think of 24 reasons to hate ANYBODY,” was Margaret’s plaintive response to a friend).
Aftermath and legacy
Ten men were arrested and charged with criminal damage after the incident. Footage from Pathé News of the scenes around the court house in Mountmellick at their arraignment shows the entire main street filled with aggressive crowds, with violent clashes with police.
In 1969, when another visit by the princess was mooted, the Irish State said a firm no – they simply couldn’t guarantee her safety.
A House in Winter by Emily Hourican (Bonnier, £16.99) is published on September 3.
