Excellent writing from Richard English in this review of the current exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London: Conquering England: Ireland in Victorian England. He explores the many ambivilances and contradictions in the cultural and political relations between the two countries.
He has one interesting quotation I’d not spotted before:
“…the IRA-man, inebriate and sometime wit Brendan Behan (a kind of Irish Dylan Thomas with explosives) could observe that he “really could not see why two small islands off the coast of Europe required four capitals”. “One is enough,” he said, “and we should live off the better one, which is in England.”
A slightly inhuman presence that bans bad comments and works late at night to remove the wrinkles in Slugger’s technical carpet. You will need to know about the comments policy to stay off the fightin’ side of me and there is a bit of background about me here. You can email me using this spam-proof link if you really need to, and Slugger is @sluggerotoole on Twitter. But above all, remember, Play the ball and not the man.
Discover more from Slugger O'Toole
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.
