Garech Browne is the son of Oonagh Guinness, the youngest daughter of brewing industry magnate Arthur Ernest Guinness. Her second marriage was to the fourth Lord Oranmore and Browne (making her Lady Oranmore and Browne). Garech himself married Princess Purna Harshad of Morvi.

His mother inherited Luggala, the fairytale Gothic lodge in the Wicklow mountains. Stories abound about the flamboyant lifestyle she led there, where money and valuables were taken for granted . . . a Magritte masterpiece hung above the fireplace in the drawingroom, where it is said that a maid, thinking it looked a little dull, cleaned it with lashings of Vim, thereby dulling it even further.

Despite his background of wealth, privilege and Anglo-Irish connections, Garech Browne often dresses in an Aran geansai and bainin cap and jacket and is passionate about Irish traditional music, which became central to life at Luggala.

He founded The Chieftains and it was usual to find musicians playing informally in his house. The pipers Leo Rowsome, Seamus Ennis, Ronan Browne and Liam O Floinn often gathered to play informally there. In 1959, Browne founded Claddagh Records, where Irish traditional music was given a platform to develop into the specialist music genre it is today.

It wasn't only musicians who were drawn to Luggala. In its efforts to attract the public, or even the public imagination, to the sale, the catalogue introduction invokes a list of celebrities, a kind of who's who of those who passed through the house at one time or another. It reads like a ragbag assembly of those you might find in gossip columns.

The Rolling Stones (especially Jagger), Marianne Faithfull, members of the Chieftains, several writers (Michael Hartnett, John Montague, Derek Mahon, Seamus Heaney, Patrick Kavanagh, Brendan Behan) and artists (Louis Le Brocquy, Camille Souter) have visited at one time or another.

To top it off, we are told that more recently "Bono and his wife Ali Hewson have described Luggala as their "epicentre" and, together with Bob Geldof, have found inspiration in the tranquil setting."

Others have availed of this tranquillity, including cooks Theodora Fitzgibbon and Clarissa Dickson-Wright, film celebrities John Huston, John Hurt, Charlotte Rampling, John Boorman and Sean Connery, sculptor Edward Delaney and architect Michael Scott.

It might be easier to cite those who haven't visited Luggala.

Browne himself was certainly influenced by his mother, who had a penchant for entertaining artistic and bohemian types. He became pied piper to an eclectic mix of people. If he can attract half of them to purchase items at his sale, he will do well.

They will find gold, silver, paintings, porcelain, chimney pieces, clocks, tables and Irish and other furniture.

There are two rare gold Claddagh rings (1785) by George Robinson, and umpteen pieces of silver, ranging from commemorative shilling pieces, vesta cases, shoe buckles, napkin rings and snuff boxes to elaborate soup ladles, a Dublin Victorian post horn, and Irish silver freedom boxes.

It is clear that there's nothing unfashionable about brown furniture when it is auctioned off in a heavenly setting and from a demesne with such cultural and celebrity clout. And thus, bookcases, wardrobes and sets of chairs that you might find at any ordinary auction take on a hauteur of their own.

And there are extraordinary pieces, too . . . a triple library bookcase has an estimate of 60,000- 80,000, a William IV mahogany wardrobe by MacWilliams and Gibton has an estimate of 7,000- 10,000 and an Irish mahogany estate cabinet with 24 pigeon holes has an estimate of 8,000- 12,000. And then of course there are the important pieces from the great houses of Ireland: a sofa from Russborough House in Co Wicklow, a bookcase from Clonbrock in Co Galway; a Gothic mirror from Bracklyn Castle in Co Westmeath.

The pieces de resistance at the sale include a harpsichord (dubbed in the catalogue as one of the finest musical instruments in existence) that was made in Dublin by Ferdinand Weber (1715-1784) and brought home from London. On the other hand, an enormous longcase clock, 'the speaker's clock' that stood in the old Irish Parliament House on College Green (now the Bank of Ireland), was purchased to prevent it leaving the country.

It is not the first time that Browne has downsized and sold off surplus items from his property . . . he has sold some of the property itself.

In altruistic mood, he sold off over 1,600 acres to the government for 1.725m. Dick Roche, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, was instrumental in the purchase of an area the size of Phoenix Park from the 5,000-acre Luggala estate. The land provides a significant new extension to the Wicklow Mountains National Park and opens up further tracts to the public.

Garech Browne says the furniture comes not just from Luggala but from Woodtown Manor in Rathfarnham and other Guinness properties.

And being, he says, "a bit of a magpie", he has built up clutter over the years. In fact, the swimming pool at Luggala can't function since it has been covered over and filled with surplus furniture. "It will be nice to be able to see it, " he says.

With so many countries to visit (he initially took the domicile of his father) it's hard to look after furniture properly, he says.

"It eventually builds up on you, and I'm tired now and other people may now look after it better." With homes in many countries, he is in every sense a man of the world. But Ireland has a special place.

"Ireland is with me always . . . I connect with Ireland in every way, " he says.

The sale of the surplus furniture from Browne's home at Luggala will attract the punters for the magnificent location alone, if not for the furniture.

And Garech Browne will be hovering somewhere, inviting people to stay as usual. The catalogue states that Luggala and its collections represent two of the greatest periods in Irish culture, the 18th and 20th centuries.

The catalogue also gives directions to Luggala and notes that mobile phones don't operate in the vicinity.

But once you're in the idyllic setting of mountain, valley, lake and house, mobile phones will be forgotten and the furniture will have a captive audience.

Mealy's Auction at Luggala, Co Wicklow, is at 11 am on 2 May.

Contact: 056-4441229