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IN WATERVILLE, a popular holiday destination near the Ring of Kerry, stands a bronze statue of silent movie star and director, Charlie Chaplin.
The statue, accompanied by a stone plaque, remembers the actor as “a welcome and humble guest and friend to many” of Ireland.
But why the statue? And why here?
Well, the Chaplin family – Charlie, his wife Oona and their eight children – spent many summer holidays in the village throughout the 1960s.
Chaplin was born in England, made his career in the United States and spent his final years in Switzerland. But what drew him to holiday, repeatedly, on our green isle?
In Garret Daly’s documentary, Kerry and the Tramp, made for RTÉ Radio One, Chaplin’s daughter Geraldine revealed the origins of his relationship with Ireland, which began in 1959.
Her mother, Oona O’Neill, had Irish ancestry and wanted to visit the country her family left prior to her birth. Chaplin enthusiastically made the voyage overseas, swapping film sets for quaint countryside views.
Chaplin, at this time, was a global superstar. But in rural Ireland, where the faceless medium of radio ruled as a main source of entertainment, the actor enjoyed anonymity among the locals.
Detailing the filmmaker’s holidays in Waterville, Chaplin Film Festival includes ”fishing on Lough Currane” as Chaplin’s favourite pastime.
Each year, Chaplin stayed in the Butler Arms Hotel and befriended the owners, the Huggard family. The website Vacation Killarney marks the break-out of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, from 1970, as the end of their summers in Waterville with “fears [the violence] would spread south.”
Twenty-eight years after Chaplin’s final visit, the bronze cast statue, by sculptor Alan Ryan Hall was unveiled in July 1998. The life-sized figure depicts Chaplin dressed as The Tramp, his most famous character from the 1915 movie of the same name.
The piece was funded by the actor’s daughter, Josephine Chaplin and the EU Leader Programme, an organisation supporting rural development.
As well as being immortalised in bronze, Chaplin’s mark on Kerry extends to the annual Charlie Chaplin Comedy Film Festival. Since its inaugural event in 2011, the festival is held every August in the town of Waterville.
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Next week: How many voted waterboarding as their favourite form of torture?
@Paraic: And yet Julian Assange has done his sentence but the UK won’t let him leave jail until they sent him to the USA next year.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/may/31/julian-assange-shows-psychological-torture-symptoms-says-un-expert
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/31/world/europe/julian-assange-torture-un.html
No such thing as British or US justice.
Father Ted , Country.
Doesn’t actually tell us how many people voted for the Hail Mary, only the percentage.
Christopher Hitchens said he prayed once, for an erection. I wonder was that on the list of options for favourite prayer?
@Squiddley Diddley: with the amount he was drinking an erection would be truly miraculous.
@Seamus Mac: Who’d be the relevant patron saint Seamus?
@Squiddley Diddley: saint Pfizer i believe.
Thank God, I’m an atheist
A prayer. Is that something that old people do.
@Leitrim303: Old people and young folks who wear chinos with a shirt tucked into it, oh, and shoes.
@Mairead1990: But but Liamo you have yourself signed in as a 19 year old female student from Canada? Can you not just log back on as Graham Wilson again, you had a good run there
@Pickles: You’re gone a bit too crazy on me darling.
@Mairead1990: Crazy is relative Liam. Some people might call you crazy for being a fat middle aged bloke from Wexford pretending to be a 19 year old Canadian female.
@Pickles: Liam was buggered by a priest so turned to Islam for sanctuary
@Leitrim303: More miracles are recieved by prayer then this world dreams of
I bet there wasn’t much of a selection of prayers to go on? Always The Imitation of the Holy Cross but everyone has their own favourite for someone to insult publicly? The the same ones want respect and talk about compassion at the same time?
Religion eh? You just couldn’t make it up.
And in other news…. Santa will be here in just over 12 weeks.
The demonic saint Santa Muerte has replaced Mary in Mexico. Oddly enough the worship reminds you of Mary worship for statues are of a skeleton dressed up as her. Satan in Catholic belief is more powerful than Mary for Mary has only God’s power while Satan has his own. Yet Catholics claim she is protection against the wiles and attacks of the Devil. Why on earth then are we told to virtually invite Satan in by depending on her feeble “help”?
Jewish tradition had an evil female demon called the Lilith. It seems the early Christians tried to give it a new female demon to worry about! From hating the bishop at Medjugorje and telling St Bernadette to eat dirt the apparitions of Mary do not lend confidence to her. Jewish tradition is clear that Jesus’ mother was far from pure and holy. She was described as a hairdresser with loose morals.
The demonic saint of Mexico and other areas, Santa Muerte, Our Lady of Holy Death, has had the fastest growing saint cult of all time. She poses like Mary and dresses like her and presents as a skeleton. She has no history! Is that because she IS Mary and we are not supposed to know?
@Test Religion: we will all tune into the next episode on the sci-fi channel
Who gives a sxxt.
FFS..
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