The French justice minister and the Kinsale Road roundabout

THE picture was on the right of the front door of my grandmother’s house in Dublin’s Liberties.

Straight ahead was the kitchen. To the left was the drawing room into which nobody ever went, firstly because it had to be kept perfect, in case somebody died or the Pope dropped in, and secondly because it had horsehair furniture which is pure misery to sit on.

To the right was the stairs — and a small reproduction of Millais’ painting The Gleaners.