Stardust drama did not equal reality

In his sometime role as would-be renaissance prince, Charles Haughey was about to play Lorenzo the Magnificent to the struggling artists of Ireland. He, and his arts adviser Anthony Cronin may never have foreseen that this initiative would also eventually benefit the Bonos and potboiler writers of this world, but on a February weekend in 1981 Haughey was about to announce Aosdana to the delegates at the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis.

Whether many ...