Love/hate: our special relationship with Britain
Opinion: Looking beyond the English/Irish stereotypes in advance of the State visit
Balloons in the colours of the Irish flag are released over the crowds gathered to celebrate St Patrick’s Day in Trafalgar Square.
Collecting an Evening Standard theatre award in 1989, actor Richard Harris told a story that threw light on the truths, half-truths and caricatures that then sometimes marked Anglo-Irish relations.
Honoured with early success in Cannes for playing Frank Manchin in This Sporting Life , Harris told of spying a Standard billboard on his way back to London declaring, “British actor wins award”. Harris’s journey was only half-done, however, because a second round of celebrations remained ahead in Dublin – so he quickly headed on to Holyhead for another ferry.