Armar Lowry-Corry, 1st Earl Belmore

Armar Lowry-Corry, 1st Earl Belmore (7 April 1740 – 2 February 1802) was an Irish nobleman and politician.

He was born Armar Lowry, the first son of Galbraith Lowry (later Lowry-Corry) MP, of Ahenis, County Tyrone by his wife Sarah Corry, second daughter and eventual co-heiress of Colonel John Corry, MP, of Castle Coole, County Fermanagh.

In 1768, Lowry was elected to the Irish House of Commons for Tyrone and sat for the constituency until 1781, when he was elevated to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Belmore, of Castle Coole in the County of Fermanagh. On 6 December 1789 he was further created Viscount Belmore and on 20 November 1797 was created Earl Belmore, in the County of Fermanagh. Lord Belmore was High Sheriff of County Tyrone in 1769 and of County Fermanagh in 1779.

Lowry inherited the Corry family estate of Castle Coole in 1774, and took the additional name of Corry in recognition of this inheritance. The papers of the Lowry-Corry family show that the earl's political ambitions were a significant factor in the rebuilding of Castle Coole, which is widely regarded as the most palatial Classical 18th century house in Ireland, celebrated as the masterpiece of James Wyatt. In a characteristically incisive introduction to the catalogue of the Belmore papers at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Dr Anthony Malcomson writes:

"Castle Coole was built as part and parcel of Belmore's plans for his own and his family's political and social aggrandisement...it was well-situated to mark the nucleus of a north-western political power bloc in the Irish Parliament...That parliament, its autonomy enhanced by the so-called Constitution of 1782 looked as if it would last forever...Castle Coole therefore reflects Belmore's confidence in his own political future and in the future of the political institutions of the day. It was to be the home of a great Irish political family: not merely a place to live in, but a showpiece to proclaim Belmore's position in Irish society and influence in the Irish House of Commons."

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