Waterville works wonders
A love of Waterville (and the ability to hold a deep, bass note) opened up a world of travel and extraordinary connections for Corkman John McWhinney.
And, a chance sing-song connection in Waterville’s Butler Arms has seen some of the US’s top sports and business people experiencing Irish hospitality in this most comfortable of traditional looking homes, now up for sale.
A talented bass baritone singer McWhinney, and his family, had been going to Derrynane and Waterville in Kerry for decades. Back in 1999, he was in the famed Butler Arms when a group of golfers, visiting from the US to play the links course, asked if anyone could sing. John volunteered, but ”I was feeling a bit cranky, and said I’d only sing if I was bought a few pints.”
With Gospel standards like Old Man River among Irish ballads in his amateur repertoire, John obviously impressed the visitors - the come-all-ye session went on into the not-so small hours.
Leading the appreciative visitors’ charge was one Wayne Huizanga from Florida, who had three Fortune 500 companies under his business belt, and was franchise holder for three top-tier sports in the Sunshine State, baseball, ice hockey and football: at one stage Huizanga owned 50% of the Miami Dolphins.
The sing-song turned out to have opened extraordinary doors, and friendships for McWhinney. Weeks after the Waterville session, he was asked to sing a verse of the Star Spangled Banner at a Dolphins home game in Miami: “It was unaccompanied and the first time I ever held a microphone in my life,” he recalls of the experience.
In the event, John went on to sing at one Dolphins home game every year for over a decade, in front of stadium crowds from 40,000 to 80,000, and a reporter from Vanity Fair travelled to this house in Waterville at one stage to talk to McWhinney about his connection for a biography being done on Huizanga.
Over a decade, the McWhinneys travelled to the US, or did the Adriatic on Huizanga’s $80m yacht, called Aussie Rules bought from golfer Greg Norman and fitted with a helipad by Huizanga, who also owned two 737’s in Fort Lauderdale. Casual meetings were with, oh, the likes of Bill Gates, and Dan Quail, and the Bush family. A slightly ethereal world.
Golf trips back to Waterville with business and sports colleagues in tow continued for over a decade for the super-wealthy Huizanga and his associates: “he fell for Ireland and for Waterville big-time, it’s by far his favourite place. He’s mad for golf, and entertaining,” notes McWhinney of a personal friendship forged through songs, and a lot of golf.
Among the people he met up with as a result were the likes of coach Nich Saban and top football quarterback Dan Marino, who stayed here at the McWhinneys’ Waterville holiday home several times, as well as golf course designer Tom Fazio, who redesigned the famous Waterville links course in 2002.
“It changed my life, Isaw the world, and when people came to Waterville, or to stay with us, they appreciated Irish home hospitality,” says John.
He had always admired this 1985-built traditional looking home above Waterville at Spunkane, and when in 2002 it came up for sale, John jumped for it.
It was designed around an older, simpler cottage, by local architect Kevin Murphy who has similar, sympathetic house designs around Derrynane, and after its purchase, McWhinney upgraded further, and put on a great sun room, which opens up views to Waterville, Ballinskelligs Bay, the Atlantic and to the golf course - all of the village’s key visual attractions, and constantly wooing visitors (Skellig Michael had the Star Wars movie crew over this summer.)
John also added a stand-alone shed, faced in stone and topped with slate, and which has a roller shutter door to the back - it’s where the ride-on mower is kept, handy in the absence of a sheep or two to keep the 1.25 acres of pristine and naturally-planted gardens here in check.
It all replaced an older dwelling, but kept one or two internal walls as a memento, and also kept the Irish name Tigh an Dauber.Selling agent is Paul Stephenson of Sherry FitzGerald Stephenson Crean in Tralee, who guides the supremely comfortable home (it was a full time residence for its previous owner) at €350,000 and who says this section of the market has now stabilised, with international interest back in the frame as the country recovers from the bust.
Tigh an Dauber has 2,200 sq ft of top quality accommodation, with spacious living areas, lofty sun room and four en suite bedrooms.It has a C3 BER, modern build, central vacuum and a Waterford Stanley range in the kitchen.
A Waterville place of note, in tune with its surroundings.
“... It changed my life, I saw the world”
Sq m 205 (2,200 sq ft)
Bedrooms: 4
Bathrooms: 5
BER Rating: C3
Best Feature: All-singing
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