Milo is thought to have worked in the Secret Service for some years during the Second World War and to have encountered some of these men in the Foreign Office and in diplomatic postings abroad, especially at Ankara in Turkey.
In the course of Milo’s time at the Foreign Office during the Cold War, Burgess and Maclean defected to the Russians after Philby alerted them to the fact that they were under suspicion.
In 1954, Lord Talbot of Malahide was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the newly independent Kingdom of Laos, which had formerly been part of French Indochina.
Rose Maud Talbot, who had to sell valuables so that the estate could be ceded to the Irish State (in order to offset inheritance taxes),[6] and specifically was vested in the former Dublin County Council.
The walled botanical gardens and glasshouses, containing Lord Talbot of Malahide's remarkable collection of Southern hemisphere and other plants, were also restored and conserved.
The Castle and 260 acre Demesne now falls within the Fingal County Council parks department, and is managed by an outside contractor with a popular Avoca restaurant and boutique shops.