‘He loved this part of the world’
‘ THERE was always fun wherever Brian was’ is how Kenmare man Sean Daly described his friend and famous actor Brian Dennehy who passed away this week, aged 81.
It was through Sean’s work as an auctioneer that he first met Brian in the 1990s, when the giant of stage and screen came to Kenmare to look for a ‘ traditional Irish cottage’.
“He was a giant of a man and I remember telling him: ‘Brian, you’ll never fit in a traditional Irish cottage,” Sean jokingly recalls.
Brian Dennehy had family links in Millstreet, County Cork and in Kilmacalogue, near Kenmare. It seemed only fitting then that Brian’s eventual choice of holiday residence - Ardgroom - should be located on the Kerry/Cork border.
“I took him on a drive to see several places and eventually I showed him a property on the coast road in Ard Groom. I remember him looking out the window and saying: ‘ this is it’. The view was spectacular.”
Sean has many special memories of Brian’s visits to Kerry, including the time they went shopping for furniture together for Brian’s new home -a journey that lasted longer than expected!
“We went down to Sneem and he bought his tables and chairs. He said on the way back ‘we must do a tour’. We stopped at every pub on the way back. He was a great character and he loved visiting Kenmare. He enjoyed cycling around that part of the world as well.”
Attending Irish rugby internationals at Lansdowne Road is another of Sean’s memories of his time with Brian.
“His own sporting background would have been in American Football, as he was a huge man. We enjoyed memorable times at rugby matches, including travelling through Dublin to the match after a few drinks in a horse and cart! As a thank you, Brian got us tickets to see Ireland versus Italy in Giants Stadium, New York, during the World Cup of ’94. Brian’s son-in-law is Italian, so we all enjoyed that occasion together,” he said.
Brian’s last visit to Kenmare was in Christmas 2019, when he returned for a wedding. The dancing maestro Michael Flatley even joined their company on that occasion.
“Brian was in good health back then and, sadly, he went very quickly in the end. He was a bit of an institution, really. Brian was a lovely man and he loved this part of the world,” Sean concludes.