My neighbourhood in Dublin was taken over every summer by Spanish language students who stayed in Irish homes and no doubt went back home speaking a strange form of English. My amigo was Ignacio Preciado whose parents ran a pharmacy on the Ramblas and as I learnt about Barcelona’s role in the Civil War and the suppression of Catalan culture under Franco I developed a fascination with the city which I have waited too long to expiate. The Catalan people speak two official tongues - Catalan and Spanish - and their culture has what some may call a more ‘sophisticated’ flavour than other Spanish regions, perhaps due to the influence of neighbouring France.
A native of Dublin where he lived for 33 years until, fearing crucifixion, he followed the example of St. Patrick's snakes and went to the UK just in time to avoid the stress of the boom in the Irish economy. Now working in London and living in Buckinghamshire with wife and cat close to Chequers, the Prime Minister's country residence. This and the fact I work within sight of Big Ben and Scotland Yard I'm obviously a prime terrorist target and hope I won't be recognised from my photo! I subscribe fully to my townsman, George Bernard Shaw's, opinion "The Irish are a very honest people, they never speak well of each other". My other townsman, Brendan Behan's, opinion that "Irish and Jewish organisations have much in common, the first item on the agenda is always THE SPLIT!" is also worthy of honourable mention. However the "ultimate compliment" award goes to another of my townsmen; Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, who left all his money in his will to found a psychiatric hospital. "He gave what little wealth he had, to found a house for fools and mad, to show with one satiric touch, no nation needed it as much."
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