Lady Dunsany obituary: Colourful, stylish Brazilian architect

Maria Alice de Marsillac Plunkett, Lady Dunsany
Born: January 27th, 1942
Died: April 9th, 2020

The death has taken place from Covid-19 in Navan of Maria Alice de Marsillac Plunkett, Lady Dunsany. The Brazilian architect and designer, affectionately known locally as Lady D, was the widow of the late Edward Plunkett, 20th Lord Dunsany who died in 2011.

Though she claimed ancestry from the Portuguese explorers and navigators Vasco da Gama and Pedro Alvares Cabral, she was born in Rio de Janeiro to parents from two distinguished Brazilian families – the Villela and the Bandeiro de Mello with connections to France, Spain and Portugal. She was the youngest of three children.

Her father Scipiao de Carvalho was a colonel in the Brazilian army who became an architect on retirement and greatly influenced her own subsequent architectural career. He also taught her how to handle a pistol practicing on cacti. Graduating with distinction in architecture from the Federal University of Rio, her early talents were recognised by Oscar Niemeyer who awarded her first prize in an architectural competition.

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Having set up on her own, a considerable achievement in a male dominated profession at the time, her most significant buildings include the elegant Villa d’Este apartments on Ipanema Beach and the high-end Fashion Mall Shopping Centre in Rio which remains a favourite gathering place for locals.

Married to the surgical oncologist Jayme de Marsillac and the mother of their two children Daniel and Joana, she decided to pursue her career in the US and relocated to New York in the early 1980s setting up her practice on 57th Street between Madison and Park Avenue.

There her main projects included the refurbishment of Sotheby’s Auction House and a large residential restoration project for the Frick family in Alpine New Jersey. It was during this time that she met the painter Edward Plunkett who came to work with her. Following her divorce, they married in New York and rebranded the practice as de Marsillac Plunkett Architecture, a creative partnership.

The couple moved to Ireland when Edward inherited the Barony of Dunsany and Dunsany Castle in Co Meath where a new life began with their two young sons, Randal and Oliver, and from where she continued to work on several projects in London, uniquely holding architectural professional licences in Brazil, several states in the US, the UK and Ireland concurrently.

She was a founding member of the AIA chapter (American Institute of Architects) in London as well as working on several consultancy projects for private clients, governments and her son Daniel, a property developer.

As chatelaine in Dunsany, she threw herself with characteristic energy and enthusiasm into reinvigorating the castle and its restoration while championing her husband’s career as a gifted painter, sculptor, architect and product designer.

She orchestrated a major exhibition of his work in Rome, converted an 18th century wing into a gallery showcasing his paintings and sculpture, revitalized the literary works of his grandfather, the 18th Lord Dunsany and created a high-end homeware boutique Dunsany Home Collection open to the public.

She also hosted many film productions in the castle including Mel Gibson’s Braveheart, The Aristocrats, Vita and Virginia and more recently the US epic, The Green Knight. In later years all her attention was devoted to caring for her husband who had a long-term illness and died aged 71 in 2011.

Colourful, stylish and an avid collector of vintage textiles, she brought great flair to the castle’s interiors creating eye-catching arrangements from found items in the estate along with her husband’s decorative porcelain and sculpture. She was also fearless and outspoken and fended off predatory developers with their lucrative offers to acquire land.

Her confrontation of stag hunters trespassing on the estate without permission, brandishing an antique rifle from the family’s gun collection made headlines.

As a mother, her support and encouragement for her sons in their choice of career remained resolute – Randal as a movie producer and environmentalist and Oliver, a software developer in the games industry. From both marriages she formed a unified and cohesive wider family that has remained close.

Laid to rest in the grounds of Dunsany beside Edward, Maria Alice Plunkett is survived by her sons Daniel, Randal and Oliver, her daughter Joana, her sister Maria da Penha, brother Affonso and grandchildren.