Green Dollars for Killarney

An American landed on Erin's green

isle,

He gazed at Killarney with rapturous

smile.

"How can I buy it?" he said to the

guide,

"I'll tell you how," with a smile he

replied,

How can you buy all the stars in the

skies?

How can you buy two blue Irish eyes?

How can you purchase a fond mother's

sighs?

How can you buy Killarney?*

Last week, in answer to the old song, Florida Real Estate Broker James Stuart Robertson, 59, showed how even a non-Irishman could own Killarney. His formula: after the owner dies and the tax collectors haunt his heirs, step in with enough green dollars and a promise never to spoil the scenery.

For 400 years before Robertson's purchase, Killarney had been owned by the Earls of Kenmare, who had jealously guarded the natural beauty made famous by poet, musician and tourist. Then two months ago, after the last Earl had died, his heir, Mrs. Beatrice Grosvenor, was forced to put 8,500 acres of the 9,000-acre estate up for sale so that she could pay off a -L-70,000 ($196,000) inheritance tax. But she could find no buyer. Irishmen in Dublin, afraid that Killarney would fall into unsympathetic hands, started a fund-raising campaign, could raise only -L-10,000. In the U.S., sharing similar fear, the Bartenders Association of Boston voted $1,000 (-L-357) for a "Save Killarney" fund--also not enough.

Seven weeks ago, in Boca Raton, Fla., Robertson, who has made his money in shipping and real estate, read a news item saying that the Lakes of Killarney were for sale. He flew to Ireland, looked over the 30 page, 2 ft.-by-3 ft. parchment deed written in Latin during the reign of Charles I (1625-49). Then, after pledging that he would maintain the rustic tradition of Killarney and continue to permit the public to enjoy the property, Robertson paid a reported $252,000 to become owner of 14th century Ross Castle, the ancient Abbey of Saint Finian, Kenmare House, two lakes, 60 islands.

Disclaiming any plot to "Americanize" Killarney with motor boats or automobiles, Robertson, of Scottish-Irish descent, plans to summer in Killarney, winter in Florida.

* Copyright 1948 by the Peter Maurice Music Corp. Ltd.

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