About
Maureen O’Hara
About
From Dublin to Glengarriff
Maureen O’Hara is a famous Irish actress and singer, best known for her roles in ‘The Quiet Man’, ‘McLintock’, ‘The Parent Trap’ and ‘Miracle on 34th street’ among many others. Maureen O’Hara, Born by the name Maureen Fitzsimons, on the 17th August 1920 in Ranelagh, Dublin. O’Hara Grew up in Dublin, where she started learning performing arts from the age of 10. She lived in Ireland until she was nineteen, when she then moved to Hollywood after being given a screen test,where she caught the eye of English actor Charles Laughton, with whom she then co-starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Jamaica Inn’ in 1939. From then on O’Hara became a star, being dubbed ‘The Queen of Technicolour’. Maureen O’ Hara married twice before meeting her third husband Captain Charles F. Blair Jr, In 1968. Capt. Blair, originally from Buffalo, New York was born on July 19th 1909. Blair was a very successful pilot and was both a Captain in the U.S. Naval Air Transport service during WWII and a General in the U.S Air Force.
When Capt. Blair met Maureen O’Hara in the 1970’s, he was running a flying business in Saint Croix which they later sold to spend their time in the house they purchased in Glengarriff. We can see the large 36arce estate from the water in Glengarriff harbour. The house is situated on the face of the waterside, looking out onto the bay. The house has a walkway down to the sea where Capt.Blair moored his seaplane which he often used to fly them in and out from their seaside house in Glengarriff to their home in the Caribbean.
Capt. Blair tragically died in 1978 after a routine flight turned fatal when the port engine failed and the plane crashed into the ocean where he and three other passengers sadly drowned. Maureen stayed in their Glengarriff home often until it became her permanent residence in 2005. In 2014 Maureen O’Hara left the house in Glengarriff to be closer to her family in the United States. In late 2015, Maureen O’Hara passed away peacefully in her sleep aged 95. Maureen O’Hara was a large part of Glengarriff community where her annual golf tournament is still held and it is planned that she will be commemorated with a bronze statue in Glengarriff village.