The meeting on the turret stairs by Frederic William Burton from Corofin, County Clare, is officially Ireland's favourite painting. This wrought iron staircase in Trinity Library reminded me of my earliest encounters with it.........
Occasionally on a fine Sunday our Dad would announce that we were going to the National Gallery in Dublin. We could just about walk from our house (a ruse to tire us out) and once we got there we ran through the vaulted rooms only standing still at our favourites; the marriage of Strongbow and Aoife, the lightning strike through the mountain valley, the girl with the parasol, the school teacher with the big nose and his two scruffy pupils, and above all this romantic watercolour only shown on particular winter days when the light was not too intense.
To this day any spiral stairs, any dark twist in the path, any encounter with a Knight will have the same effect........
