Life of esteemed Irish actor Richard Harris explored in new exhibition
AN exhibition will open this summer whch tells the story of the life and career of the esteemed Irish actor Richard Harris.
Over the course of his career Harris, who was born in Limerick in 1970, starred in many films, including the likes of The Field, Unforgiven and Gladiator, and he played Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films.
He died in London in 2002 at the age of 72.
Irish actor Richard Harris pictured in 2001 in New York
Archives related to the late star's life will go on display at the Hunt Museum in his native Limerick from July, some of which have never been seen publicly before.
From 'Dickie to Richard' - Richard Harris: Role of a Lifetime is the first ever public exhibition of items drawn from the actor's own collection, including personal letters and annotated scripts to rare photographs, poetry, recordings, and sporting memorabilia.
'Role of a Lifetime offers an unprecedented glimpse into the mind and spirit of an artist who captivated audiences across generations,' the curators said this week.
The exhibition is a collaboration between the Harris family, the Hunt Museum and University College Cork (UCC).
It draws on the items found in the Harris Archive, which was donated by the actor's family to UCC in 2022.
An image of Richard Harris in his youth from the Richard Harris Archive at UCC
'Richard was a prolific writer and kept everything: Poems, short stories, scripts, whether finished or works in progress,' his sons Damien, Jared and Jamie Harris, said in a statement made on behalf of this family.
'This exhibition gives people a sense of the depth and humour behind the public image,' they added.
'It means a lot to us to see it begin here, in Limerick."
Barry Monahan, of the Department of Film & Screen Media at University College Cork, said the exhibit 'offers the public – fans of Richard, of the arts, and of Irish culture – a wonderful glimpse into the mind and creative energy of this impressive and enigmatic Irishman'.
"The exhibition comprises carefully selected artefacts from the larger archive, on which our UCC's Special Collections and Archives team has been working," he added.
"We are honoured that this magnificent donation is now housed, protected, preserved, and researched at University College Cork.'
Richard Harris in the role of Professor Dumbledore in the first Harry Potter film
For Teresa Crowley, CEO at the Hunt Museum, the exhibition is 'a homecoming for Richard'.
'It not only honours his extraordinary career but celebrates his Limerick, Munster, and Irish roots, offering the public a unique opportunity to explore his artistic and sporting world in the city where his journey began,' she added.
From 'Dickie to Richard' - Richard Harris: Role of a Lifetime runs at the Hunt Museum in Limerick from July 4 until November 16. A series of public talks, film screenings, and events will accompany the show throughout its run.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
26 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
The ‘Stay Safe with Jessy' competition brings farm safety to the classroom
Teagasc is proud to announce the launch of the 'Stay Safe with Jessy' farm safety art competition and webinar, a new initiative aimed at promoting farm safety among children. The competition invites all primary school-going children across Ireland to participate in creating pieces of art that highlight the importance of safety practices in agriculture and on Irish farms. The art competition will be followed by a live webinar on Thursday, June 19, at 11am. This 40-minute webinar, hosted by Alison Maloney of Teagasc, will be live-streamed from the Teagasc studio in Oak Park, Carlow. Joining Alison in the studio will be Jessy the Sheepdog and Francis Bligh, Farm Safety Specialist in Teagasc. They will be going live to St Joseph's National School in Rathwire, County Westmeath, where Alma Jordan from Agrikids will be discussing farm safety with students. During the webinar on June 19, winners of the art competition will be announced. There are three prize categories in the art competition, with an overall winner and runner-up in each. The categories are: Junior and Senior Infants; 1st–3rd Class; and 4th–6th Class. Get your entries in quickly, as the closing date is Friday, June 6 at 5pm. Prizes include Smyths Toys vouchers to the value of €100 for each category winner, and an Agrikids Farm Safety Workshop with Alma Jordan for their school during the 2025/2026 school year. Each runner-up will receive a €25 Smyths Toys voucher. In addition, each winner will receive a Lily Nolan Memorial Trophy for their school. Jessy the Sheepdog was originally developed in 2007 by the late Lily Nolan of Teagasc and the HSA. The storyline in the original book follows a dog called Jessy and her three puppies as they encounter various dangers on the farm. The book is available to download here. Francis Bligh, Farm Safety Specialist in Teagasc, said: 'Farms can be dangerous places, especially for children. Through this campaign, we will be highlighting the main dangers and risks on farms, how to avoid them, and how to stay safe.' Alison Maloney, Digital and Online Communications Specialist with Teagasc, said: 'I'm looking forward to hosting the Stay Safe with Jessy event. I'm thrilled to see Jessy come to life, and I would encourage all teachers and parents to support children in participating in the campaign. It's a great opportunity to start the conversation around farm safety with children who live on or visit farms.' 'It's been a real privilege to work alongside Teagasc on the Stay Safe with Jessy campaign,' added Alma Jordan of Agrikids. 'This initiative is specifically focused on children, who can be powerful messengers for safety at home and on the farm. By making these lessons engaging and age-appropriate, we're helping to build safer habits from a young age — and that can have a lasting impact.'
Irish Examiner
26 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
Hallways: Interior designers show how to make an entrance
A hallway should set the scene for our taste. It should be an inviting space. It should never be a dumping ground for shoes. Fans of Virgin Media's The Salvage Squad are being teased by presenter Brian Dowling posting on his Instagram about filming getting underway for the second season. We have a while to go before it reaches our TV screens with the fun of shopping expeditions for salvage, and trades interpreting designs to meet deadlines, all on €1,000 budgets, so to get design inspiration for hallways in the meantime, I caught up with the designers from season one, including Belfast-based Peter Irvine. Brian Dowling, presenter of 'The Salvage Squad'. Peter, of The White Home, who made over a Drogheda family's living room and is now immersed in filming season two. 'There's a common misconception that the hall should be a diluted version of your home,' he says. 'Make a statement as soon as you open the door. My mum made a beautiful tapestry and I have it by the door. Have low-level lighting with dimmable lamps. You can put them on a timer, and it makes coming home nicer. It's your home, your rules. We got rid of the door between the hall and the living room. It was always open anyway. Taking it away has created a better flow.' Interior designer Peter Irvine. So, what would be his ideal hall look like if budget were no object? 'The luxury of space, natural light to have a tree indoors,' he says. 'I don't need shiny tiles and a central staircase. I love the woody, natural aesthetic. I love the Spanish villa on the hill look with no marble floors. Just the sun and the views. It's also good to have something soft under your feet if you can, but not if you have three kids going to rugby.' A sturdy repurposed sideboard is given a painted facelift to create a luxury hall table with a surface for styling with accessories. Picture: Annie Sloan Natasha Rocca Devine created a space for a couple and their canines on her episode of The Salvage Squad, but went on to a much bigger and more personal project: Building her dream home. She says she designed the hallway with intention. 'It's one of the spaces I am most proud of. It combines everything I love: Elegance, sustainability, and a boutique hotel feel.' Using sustainable stone for structure and impact, she added a vintage chest for history and character, and then referenced her love of art deco. 'I styled the feature wall with art deco wallpaper, along with commissioned art from Irish artist Aishling Hennessy, and a strong pendant light that complements this, just like you would find in an entrance to a luxury townhouse or hotel. Natasha Rocca Devine. "The textures are layered, the tones are warm, and the scent is always seasonal and subtle. The hallway does not just look the part. It feels like our home from the moment you walk in.' For DIY interior hall projects, she suggests having a focal point. 'Lead with a memorable statement, whether it's a bold piece of artwork, a beautifully styled console table, commissioned art, or an eye-catching mirror,' she says. 'To truly elevate a hallway, think beyond the visual. I love using soft pendants or sconces on dimmers, a hallway runner underfoot, and natural materials like rattan, stone like Cosentino, or wood. Finish with flowers such as Silk Prestige, a subtle scent from a diffuser or candle to make that first step inside feel like a warm welcome.' A compact console table with abstract art and a warm wall colour set an inviting tone as you step through the door. Picture: Oka Aoife Tobin of Style So Simple helped a mother and daughter in Cobh, Co Cork, revamp their dining room in The Salvage Squad's first season, and she now has her attention on her own home. 'If you have the most beautiful hallway but people don't know where to hang their coat or they want to take their shoes off, it can make them feel uncomfortable, so have a designated space,' she says. Interior designer Aoife Tobin. 'It's hard to get furniture to fit a normal hallway, so look at your joinery. If you're getting built-in wardrobes, look at the hallway at the same time. 'Usually when I'm doing a hall, I look at the architectural detail; coving, panelling and floor. Things like artwork, creating ambience with lights, and mirrors to help a small space look bigger.' Having recently moved into her new house, she views her hallway as among the areas for attention: 'I have a normal-sized hall, but because it's mine, it's my dream one. At the moment, I'm looking at my kitchen, utility and panelling, including joinery and panelling for the hall too. My husband said, What? But I told him he'd appreciate it in the hall later, not coming home into a mess.' Read More Easy home improvements that don't require planning permission
Irish Examiner
41 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
Book review: Oona Frawley brings readers on a raw exploration of the past
Writing a memoir is brave. In novels, writers find ingenious ways of talking about themselves, using proxies and high drama to replay difficult moments in their lives. But the memoirist must dispense with all these bells and whistles, and confront unvarnished realities head on. In This Interim Time, however, Oona Frawley is less interested in talking about herself than her parents: Irish actors who emigrated to America and led their only child on a peripatetic bohemian adventure. Frawley — whose debut novel Flight was published in 2014 — was born in the US and raised in New York, but moved to Ireland in 1999, had a family, and settled down. As a writer, she became obsessed with imagining her parents' lives before they had her, their childhoods and courtship, the complex reasons for their flight. As both are now dead, Frawley feels able to tackle the thorny subject of her father's alcoholism, his struggles as an actor, and her mother's reasons for enduring dysfunction for so long. As a child in Manhattan, Frawley has pleasant memories of a cosy apartment complex on the East River, filled with warm and colourful neighbours. As the child of wandering parents, she is obsessed with houses, safe places, the tenuous concept of home. 'Beautiful houses,' Frawley explains, 'always evoke in me an indefinable longing.' She speaks movingly about a childhood doll's house that became, in miniature, a refuge: 'I disappeared into it: There are details of those rooms I recall more vividly than my childhood apartment.' To complicate matters, Oona was the daughter of wistful immigrants. As a consequence, 'I would always be the child who heard of 'home' as something far off in place and time'. 'This Interim Time', by Oona Frawley, shares descriptions of a man haunted by the childhood loss of his mother and sister, a struggling actor who lived in his performances. She shares an amusing memory of her realisation that acting was a precarious business. Her father was 'not always successful — not even mostly successful. He and his friends discussed bombed auditions so often and with such relishing of detail that when I was seven I decided the theatre was not for me… There were guffaws and much hilarity when I told them that I would be a writer.' She turned out to be an elegant one: On a journey to Mayo with her young children, she describes 'breaking the journey at Strokestown so they could empty their legs of some of the eagerness to arrive'. Switching constantly between the present and the past, Frawley contemplates the mysteries of acting, and recalls the way her parents would communicate emotionally while reading lines. There is a slide from a film they made together, which becomes an icon of recollection. 'They were beautiful and marked by lost glamour in the way that parents can be when you see them as having distinct lives, because they are not you…' After her father's funeral, she has regrets about 'the bitter disappointment that kept me from delivering a eulogy'. At that point, she says, she 'was angry with him, resentful of his drinking, protective of my mother whose life had been so changed by his alcoholism'. There is a tragic quality to her descriptions of a man haunted by the childhood loss of his mother and sister, a struggling actor who lived in his performances, and 'in some ways felt homeless without a role'. Frawley is painfully honest throughout, and speaks with raw candour about the experience of motherhood, the horror of a miscarriage, the early deaths of family and friends. There was a cloud, too, over the circumstances in which her parents had left Ireland: A home gambled away, a job lost through drinking. Frawley's relationship with her mother appears to have been strong, and perhaps her primary reason for writing this memoir was to reconcile the contradictions in her father's character, his kindness and carelessness, and find a way to forgive him. She succeeds, I think, and in the process has created a beautiful, delicate, skilfully-meandering book.
