Picture posted

The portraits of Charlie Haughey and Garret FitzGerald, the former magisterial and determined, the latter dishevelled and absent-minded, that hang at the foot of the stairs leading to the Dail chamber in Leinster House have been dwarfed by a new portrait. It is of John Foster, the last speaker of Grattan's Parliament, who refused to surrender the mace, the symbol of the Irish Parliament's authority, when it was abolished by the Act of Union in 1800. The picture's sudden appearance last week surprised many, but it's not new; it used to hang beside the flag in the main hall, but was moved in the recent refurbishment.