Handsome Devil

The festivals continue! This weekend it's been West Cork History Festival. We didn't go to as much as we should have done but we did go to this evening's programme. First up Citizen Lane - an excellent drama/documentary film about Hugh Lane, a notable collector of paintings and an aesthete who met an unexpected and tragic end on the Lusitania. His collection is the basis of an excellent art gallery in Dublin, but all English in the audience were horrified to learn that a substantial part of it, which he had bequeathed to the National Gallery in London in a bit of a pique and then unbequeathed (but not legally) was still in London. And they weren't giving it back.

Next up was Jeremy Irons, who you probably know has a rather fabulous castle near here. He arrived, plus dog, and gave a magnificent reading of selected poems from the Irish Uprising of 1916 and from the the First World War. As you would expect, he read beautifully - considered and with emotion, and I really like how he also had information about the poets and the context of their work. 

Jeremy never goes anywhere without his dog Smudge, adopted from Battersea dogs home (the internet is a wonderful thing) in 2014.  Such a well behaved pooch, he just falls asleep on his master's feet, and on hearing applause knows it's over, wakes up, gives a stretch and is ready for action!