Chester Beatty: A man who liked to collect lovely things

A new documentary looks at the life of Chester Beatty, and the incredible collection of St Paul’s letters and other items he bequeathed to the state, writes Richard Fitzpatrick.

CHESTER Beatty was one of a kind. The American — whose name is familiar to us from the eponymous Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, which houses one of the world’s greatest private collections of manuscripts and books — was the first person to receive honorary Irish citizenship, and the twelfth in total. He’s also the first private citizen in Irish history to be accorded a state funeral.