Politicians should stay silent about art until they understand it
The Nazi analogies came thick and fast on Monday night in Athlone. A poster on the Westmeath Independent’s discussion forum kicked things off by writing, “If this is even discussed for more than five minutes in the council chamber they might as well move downstairs to the library and start taking books out and burning them outside the front door.”
“This” was a motion before Athlone town council to ask the new Luan gallery to remove Fragmens sur les Institutions Républicaines IV, a monumental painting by Shane Cullen of smuggled messages from H-block prisoners during the 1981 hunger strike.