Crowe sings for friend Harris

It was one of the more unusual stages that Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe has performed on.

Nominated three times for an Oscar, the star climbed four steps on to a trailer of an articulated truck in Kilkee, Co Clare on Saturday to pay tribute to his late friend, actor Richard Harris.

Gene Hackman may have sent his regards and Clint Eastwood was sorry that he wasn't able to come to the unveiling of a bronze statue of Limerick-born Harris, but that didn't matter to the 1,500 people who heard Crowe recall his first meeting with Harris on the set of Gladiator.

Taking a break from filming in New York to be at the event, the New Zealander said he travelled to Ireland "to pay homage to a friend" by visiting many of Harris's old haunts.

Explaining how he came to write a song dedicated to Harris, Crowe said he had been in Dublin to see the Irish rugby team beat Australia for the first time in 37 years and he believed Harris was there with Ireland on the day.

Crowe said that after the match he had written the verse in memory of his friend. He told the crowd: "It was written on the back of a beer coaster so it's very short."

Backed by local singers, a guitarist and an uilleann piper, Crowe sang the "requiem in the idiom of a football song" with the crowd clapping along to the tune.

Later Crowe joined with members of the Harris family to unveil the lifesize statue overlooking the Pollock Holes in the seaside town.

The statue was made by local sculptor Séamus Connolly, and depicts Harris playing racquet ball. The actor won a racquet ball competition four years in a row in Kilkee, where he used to spend much of his summer holidays.

Alluding to the fact that a resident had appealed the decision to grant planning permission to erect the statue at Wellington Square, event organiser Manuel di Lucia said: "It is a slight problem, a minor detail and this must be the furthest distance a statue has moved in Ireland."

Earlier, one of Richard Harris's three sons present, Jared, told the crowd that they were a living memorial to his father.