Handy if the house burns down

Got a very nice invitation recently to donate some piccies to the permanent illustration and cartoon archive at the National Library of Ireland.
Here's their blog about how I came to be (sort of) obsessed with poets : http://www.nli.ie/blog/index.php/2012/02/10/yeats-in-love-joyce-skateboards-and-dreamboat-laureate/

Room to Roam remastered

The remastered Room to Roam is out now. Cover by Mrs. West, unless you believe what they say in Wikipedia.
Get it here: www.mikescottwaterboys.com

"Anthoneeeeeeeeeeeee!!!"

Sligo Rugby Club presented Anthony Foley with a specially commissioned Illustration the other week; this was not an easy piccy to execute but I think it worked out OK. It features various elements including family, children, Heineken Cup,Caps and Wasps as well as a thick volume on the shelf titled "Why I love Anthony by Gerry Thornley: Volume 1 of 66"
(I`m the short one on the right)

Yeats in Love II : The wrath of Gonne

I`m struggling. I know I have to go back to the Yeats thing. There`s mountains of other stuff to play with...
Maybe I`ll do something on the old Steinach-impotence-cure-second-puberty-elephant-testicles thing for a while.
See what comes up...
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Pfffff.....

Got that Granuaile thing finished

Finally. Couldn`t decide whether they would have been drinking shots or beer.. held me up for ages. Decided on the beer in the end.

Queen Elizabeth learns Irish

I did a bit of work on Elizabeth I last year and I`m thinking of expanding the whole Elizabeth I / Tudors/ maybe Granuaile thing. Nothing`s come up yet though...I was impressed by the fact that (allegedly) Queen Elizabeth got a few Irish lessons before meeting Granuaile; I wonder if that was true. I`d love to have been a fly on the wall that day. No worries about where to start the conversation at any rate.
I guess if Pat Kenny were to interview either of them he would patronisingly call them "Feissssssty", as he recently did with the Managing Director of the World Bank which hopefully would draw the same kind of reaction as one would if one were to get a swift kick in the teeth for no reason.

Yeats in Love

"Yeats in Love" opens at the 101 Talbot, Dublin. A series of limited edition prints depicting Yeats as a nerdy, whiny, lovesick poet who allegedly proposed to Maud Gonne at least four times before throwing in the towel and waiting until her daughter was old enough to try for. Eeeeu.
Senator David Norris was the guest of honour and delivered a ripping speech, confirming nearly all of the not very charitable opinions I have had about Yeats, Lissadell and all of it. It is reassuring to know that it is unlikely I will be escorted to the boundary of Sligo County with my backside on fire for daring to show Yeats in this way. Ambassador Tom Foley attended complete with "a bit of Security"; my son Bob rushed over to me in the middle of proceedings and announced "Mum! There`s guys outside packin`heat!". Just what you need really at an exhibition opening.
The exhibition later in the Summer moved Northwest to Sligo where Michael D. Higgins TD delivered another cracking opening speech and left many students of the Yeats Summer School in stitches; quite an achievement.
I still wonder about the whole Yeats and Sligo thing: he wasn`t born here, he didn`t live here... and we all know he isn`t buried here. The skinny around Drumcliffe at the burial was that it was just some poor French soldier.