New museum in honour of screen legend Maureen

A NEW multi-million euro showcase dedicated to Hollywood legend and former Glengarriff resident Maureen O’Hara has opened at the Foynes Flying Boat museum in Co Limerick.

Maureen O’Hara’s husband, famed aviator Brigadier General Charles Blair piloted flying boats into Foynes between 1942 and 1945, and it was in his memory that Maureen became a long-time patron of the Foynes museum where she celebrated her birthday every year until her death in 2015.

The new exhibition space, which cost €5m to construct, houses an extensive collection of memorabilia gathered by Maureen and kindly donated to the museum by her grandson Conor Beau Fitzsimons.

The collection includes some of Maureen’s famous ball gowns, jewellery, studio photos, accessories from many of her films, as well as dresses and gowns she wore to major Hollywood events.

The museum also has a selection of furniture from Maureen’s home in Glengarriff.

‘We are also very excited and lucky to have, not only Maureen’s lifetime achievement Oscar, but also the pony  trap that carried Maureen and another screen legend John Wayne, during the filming of The Quiet Man,’ Barry O’Kelly, operations manager at the Foynes Flying Boat museum, told The Southern Star.  

‘It is thanks to the generosity of Maureen’s grandson, Conor Beau Fitzsimons, that the museum now has such an incredible collection from her life, both on and off the silver screen.’ In November 2016, 99 lots of Maureen O’Hara’s  personal effects and movie memorabilia went under the hammer in New York. 

The final tally came in at almost €500,000 when the auction ended. 

Some of the items included Maureen’s personal Quiet Man script (€46,000), a tweed jacket she wore in the same movie (€15,000) and a pair of Meissen vases from her home in Glengarriff (€29,548). 

There was also a set of two mugs presented by John Wayne to Maureen to commemorate the movies they co-starred in, priced at €1,300, which went on to sell for €14,700. And at another auction in Durrow, Co Laois, a rare 18ct white gold brilliant cut diamond ring, belonging to the long-time Glengarriff resident, sold for €120,000.

Speaking previously to The Southern Star, Conor Beau Fitzsimons said that he made a promise to his grandmother to keep her legacy alive.

‘That’s why we donated so much of my grandmother’s collection to the Foynes museum,’ Conor said.

‘It is an incredible collection of mementoes from the glamorous world of a beautiful woman and a true Hollywood legend. I want to share these memories with the fans around the world and especially in Ireland.’