The 14th Earl of Antrim, whose career took him from the world of fine art to UTV, was today laid to rest in a wicker casket, in a family plot at Glenarm.

Alexander McDonnell, aged 86, died about three weeks ago in Somerset, and his funeral saw numbers of mourners limited to around 40 due to Covid concerns.

His death comes ahead of Glenarm Castle’s planned opening of The Antrim McDonnells Heritage Centre, expected to take place next year.

His family first came to Glenarm from Scotland in the late 14th Century.

Press Eye - Belfast - 11th August 2021

Funeral of The Earl of Antrim Alexander McDonnell. The 86-year-old peer died after a short illness. The funeral service took place in the family ancestral home of Glenarm on the Antrim Coast.

The Earlâ€TMs coffin was taken through the village by horse and cart for the funeral service in the Church of the Immaculate Conception after which it made its way back into the estate fro burial in the family plot on the side of the Glen.

The family can trace its line back to the last Gaelic rulers in the area in the 1500 and 1600s.

Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye — Press Eye - Belfast - 11th August 2021 Funeral of The Earl of Antrim Alexander McDonnell. The 86-year-old peer died after a short illness. The funeral service took place in the family ancestral home of Glenarm on the Antrim Coast. The Earlâ€TMs coffin was taken through the village by horse and cart for the funeral service in the Church of the Immaculate Conception after which it made its way back into the estate fro burial in the family plot on the side of the Glen. The family can trace its line back to the last Gaelic rulers in the area in the 1500 and 1600s. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye

Glenarm Castle was built by his distant relative Randal MacDonnell, 1st Earl of Antrim, in 1636 – and quickly burnt down by an anti-royalist arsonist. It went on to be rebuilt, and to this day remains a family home.

Untypically for a member of the nobility, the earl was (like his mother) a Catholic, and had been born and baptised into the faith.

His funeral was taken by Father Eugene O’Hagan at Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Glenarm.

In his homily, Father O’Hagan said he had been “an expert on many aspects of art, a leading authority on the restoration of paintings, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts” – putting him in the company of fellows Benjamin Franklin, Marie Curie, Charles Dickens and Karl Marx.

In spite of having dyslexia, after school “he went on to thrive at Oxford and later at the Ruskin School of Art”.

“His professional life is well documented and is impressive,” the homily continued.

“From restorer at the Ulster Museum in 1969, to Keeper of Conservation at the Tate Gallery in London for 20 years, to his directorship of Ulster Television [UTV], when he returned to his beloved Glens his self-effacing personality, which was a hallmark of his professional and personal life, endeared him to everyone...

“He had no airs and graces, preferring a fun-loving spontaneity to any polite aloofness that people sometimes mistakenly expect.

“He was, you could say, unconventional in many ways but at heart, and as many have described him, he was a true Glensman and a real gentleman.”

His death in England had followed a period of illness.

Now, Father O’Hagan said, “his mortal remains and accompanying memories are now brought home to rest, and as we gather to celebrate Alexander’s long life we, as Christians, gather to pray that Alexander will be welcomed into the house built by God, the house that is to be his eternal dwelling”.

His wicker coffin was conveyed on a cart bearing plants from the estate, where he was laid to rest in a family plot.

Nobleman who helped run UTV buried in simple wicker coffin