In October of 1975, at the end of a long tour of Britain, Billy Connolly came to Ireland to perform his comedy act here for the first time. The Troubles were at their height, and he had been warned by many that his safety could not be guaranteed. “They asked me,” he tells a journalist at a Dublin press conference, “so I thought what the hell.”
If, six months ago, you had told Brazilian native Caio Benicio that he would be entering the Irish political fray, he would have been bemused. Life then was all about working 10- to 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, as a self-employed food delivery rider. There was no time to contemplate the political landscape of his adopted home country, never mind stand as a Fianna Fáil candidate in June’s local elections.
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In the catalogue for his latest solo exhibition, Robert Ballagh is described as “a public artist”. It is the perfect summation of a man whose work has been central to Irish life for decades and who has managed the rare feat of being both a living artist and a household name.