: : And Patrick OŽbrian, who tried to avoid attention by the world by claiming he was Irish, but two years before his death, the truth came out that he was English.
: : Jan

: How does claimed or real Irishness protect from the attentions of the world?

: It didn't work very well for Oscar Wilde, James Joyce or Brendan Behan for example.

Well he was hiding his past, hiding behind a fictious Irish history, so the world would always be looking in the wrong direction.
Jan