Harris’s old holiday home on offer

HIS ashes were scattered in the Bahamas, but they could as easily have found a sacred resting place in Thomond Park, or Kilkee — both places of worship for the late Limerick actor Richard Harris.

Hell-raising Harris, who died in 2002, had a career that included roles in Camelot, The Field, Unforgiven, as Harry Potter’s Dumbledore, etc., but always remained true to his Limerick roots, and Munster rugby.

An entire generation of Limerick and other Irish families will always associate Richard ‘Dickie’ Harris with the Co Clare seaside resort of Kilkee, the place of choice for family holidays for thousands, to this day.

Up for sale by auction in Kilkee is the former family holiday home of Harris, The Billows at the West End, being sold for un-related current owners who bought it some years ago and who have carried out a good deal of renovation.

GVM’s Tom Crosse gives an AMV of €550,000, and is hoping to sell at auction on August 21 in the Stella Maris Hotel, Kilkee. Appropriately, one of the two selling agents is Manuel de Luca, who was a long-time friend of Harris and who unveiled a bronze life-size statue of him playing rackets as a Kilkee-loving youth of 18 summers.

The Victorian two-storey house with unusual, side-by-side double bay window has “spectacular beach and bay views, rear access and is just a short walk from all amenities and this hugely popular seaside town,” they say. Features include period touches, high ceilings, up to six bedrooms, and it has been partly refurbished and renovated, with sash windows and a new roof on top.

A plaque on the front wall pier recalls Harris’ link with The Billows.