It was a good Grand National for Ireland. The winner, Tiger Roll, is trained at Summerhill in Co Meath on my sister’s doorstep. Another Irish horse came second at 66/1, Magic of Light, trained by Jessica Harrington, my brother-in-law’s sister. Ireland has always punched above its weight and not just on the turf.
Oliver Goldsmith moved from Co Longford to Co Westmeath when he was two. His father had been appointed rector of Kilkenny West and the family lived in the rectory at Lissoy. Novelist, poet and playwright, his work has endured for 250 years. Yesterday I saw She Stoops to Conquer in LAMDA’s Sainsbury Theatre. How does a comedy written in 1771 stand up today?
Surprisingly well. Human nature doesn’t change and the characters depicted by Goldsmith are all too recognisable today. “In the squeezing of a lemon” was borrowed from the play by Elizabeth David for the title of one of her books. This quote is only too apt.
“I fretted myself about the mistakes of government, like other people; but finding myself every day grow more angry, and the government growing no better, I left it to mend itself.”
Only one dead.
Thank goodness not a jockey or owner.
Some of Goldsmith’s most oft quoted words are: ‘I love everything that’s old, – old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine.’
With these sentiments I wholly concur.