I wrote a little poem about this painting, by Belfast artist Gerard Dillon, painted in the 1950s. I bought a postcard of it years ago and it’s moved around with me since. A more Irish scene you couldn’t get.

(With a nod to Margaret Wise Brown).

In the great yellow room, there was a stove

And a kettle and a cat
And a teapot and a mat
And there were three dead fishes, once filled with wishes
And a sugán chair
And a mind full of care

And a manky red curtain
And the window with no net
The kettle on the boil and the table always set

And my box and its tunes
She’d say they made her heart bloom

And on any fine day, when I’d wish to be away
I’d hear all those villagers muttering whisht

Goodbye room, goodbye chair
Goodbye view, goodbye despair
Goodbye turf, goodbye cat
Farewell Mayo, adieu to all that