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This article appeared in the Opinion pages of the print edition of last Saturday’s Irish Times
MANY OF us have had the experience of those sporting occasions where a few players are tossing a ball around at a practice session when somebody’s cousin arrives from out of town and turns in a stellar performance that leaves everyone gasping with admiration.
There’s an excellent letter in today’s Irish Times (see below) which struck a chord with yours truly. The letter-writer suggests that the Bank of Ireland hand over the old Parliament House on College Green to the State. He goes on to propose that the building become a museum in commemoration of the 1916 Rising and the Battle of the Somme.
Former Houses of Parliament, now Bank of Ireland premises at College Green, Dublin (Photograph by Alan Betson, 2001)
The furore over Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross and their sicko phone calls to venerable actor Andrew Sachs had a very positive side-effect in that it swept the recession aside for a few days as the main news item in the British media. Irish outlets seemed reluctant to take up the story: London is no longer the centre of our cultural universe and I guess that’s a good thing. (more…)
