Family in-fighting blemishes Blarney’s eloquent nature
The baronet of Blarney, Charles Colthurst, has hit the headlines on numerous occasions in recent years but his relationships with women have made for the most column inches.
The baronet had a much publicised split from his wife Nora, mother of his four children, in 2003 after 16 years of marriage. What raised eyebrows was her rapid replacement as the castle’s first lady by Englishwoman Caroline Myers, herself a divorcee.
Following the split, Charles was quoted in one newspaper article as complaining that he had not seen his children regularly since they and their mother left Blarney in 2005. In another newspaper, one of his daughters responded, saying they had wanted to see their father but would not go to the house if his new partner was there.
In spite of his daughter’s reservations about her, the baronet’s relationship with Caroline Myers appears to have flourished, the couple regularly pictured together at high-profile events.
One venue they would likely have preferred not to have attended was a courtroom where, in 2011, they were co-defendants in a bitter civil action taken by a bloodstock agent over ownership of a horse. While Charles claimed the horse had been a gift, the agent, Hugo Merry, claimed he retained 60% ownership. The horse, Blarney Highwayman, was later sold for £18,000 (€21,000) and the court ordered that Mr Merry receive 60% of that sum.
Money was also the issue when Charles angered a lot of people by saying the minimum wage was too high and was turning Ireland into too expensive a place to visit.
“We all know people who still go to holidays in Spain and come back and say how cheap it is compared to here,” he said in 2010. “We must drive down the cost of our overheads — and lowering the minimal wage is essential to do that.”
