Homan Potterton, art historian who revitalised Ireland’s National Gallery – obituary
He resigned from his post after eight years in protest at slow progress over repairs, but went on to become an acclaimed writer
Homan Potterton
Homan Potterton, who has died aged 74, was Director of the National Gallery of Ireland from 1980 until 1988, and then devoted himself to writing about art before turning, with remarkable versatility, to produce two books of memoirs and a novel.
The first of these memoirs, Rathcormick, told the story of an Irish upbringing as the youngest of eight children; he was born Homan Franklyn Potterton on May 9 1946 into a Protestant farming family of remote English descent, who lived in a bubble somewhat isolated from their Catholic compatriots but were neither posh nor anglicised.
All good friends and jolly good company: life with the Crichel Boys
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For the Love of Ireland | Irish America
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Anglo-Irish novelist Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973)
Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo
“Ghost, get, out.” As Julia Parry started taking notes on her computer for this book about her grandfather’s love affair with the novelist Elizabeth Bowen, the keyboard lurched out of control, spitting out a gibberish from which only those three monosyllables emerged coherently.
Even the most cynical rationalist might suspect this to have been a message from beyond, albeit one that could be variously interpreted. Parry took it as a positive sign of an “electric connection” with her subject and an invitation to explore and expose the truth of something long buried. The result is an essay of rare sensitivity and intelligent reflection, as meticulously composed as it is elegantly written. More robust tastes might find its analysis of personal feeling excessively quivering with self-consciousness – a quality it shares with Bowen’s fictional manner – but at its heart is a fa
The Shadowy Third by Julia Parry, review — Elizabeth Bowen s illicit affair | Culture
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