Harris’s son hits out at critics of statue erected in memory of father

A SON of Richard Harris has hit out at critics of a statue of the film star erected in his native Limerick.

Jared Harris, who attended the unveiling of the statue in Bedford Row last year, said he was dismayed and angered at the furore over the design of the bronzed work of Clare sculptor Jim Connolly.

Critics claim the statue does not truly represent the physical appearance of Richard Harris.

The work depicts Harris as King Arthur in Camelot.

Jared Harris said in a letter yesterday to the Limerick Leader newspaper: “It really takes some doing, to go to the considerable trouble of dedicating a permanent memorial to one of your [Limerick] sons and then spend the next 12 months kicking the man.

Writing from Los Angeles, he said: “What is all the more extraordinary is that the focus of this ‘debate’ seems to be centred on my father’s deserts in being memorialised in the first place. This was surely something that needed to have been, should have been, gauged before the statue was commissioned — not after.

“As every artist knows and will be only too quick to tell you, the second you hold anything up for the public to view, somebody else will piss on it and call it a review. If he wants to defend his choices in this work of art, he is not only free to do so, he is able.”

Mr Harris said, if there was no longer a desire to have his father memorialised within Limerick, the statue should be taken down. “If, however, you choose to leave the statue standing then please do yourself the honour of defending the decision.

“You are, after all, supposed to have elevated the man, not put him in the stocks — because, in the end, isn’t this the point. My father is dead. He is beyond caring whether you memorialise him or not. It is the living that cares.”

Jared Harris said all art reflects the creator as much as it does its subject.

He added: “In my view, I can see much of Jim Connolly in the statue. There is nothing wrong with that. It is to be expected.”