The Old Un's Notes: John Betjeman

In 1941, John Betjeman became British press attaché in Dublin.

To begin with, he disliked his time there, but increasingly he loved his three years in the country and took to signing off his letters, ‘le meas mór, do chara dhílis, Seán Ó Betjemán’.

And now a new book, Betjeman in Ireland, by Dominic Moseley, covers his visits to the country, from his first in 1925, as an Oxford undergraduate. Over 50 years later, he made a charming BBC programme, John Betjeman’s Dublin.

Betjeman wrote many poems in Ireland – and amusing letters, too. In 1943, he wrote to Myfanwy Piper, wife of artist John Piper:

‘Still do you run barelegg’d across the yard?

Still would you pillow with athletic curves

My bald, grey head upon your breasts?

Your stalwart body still excites me much

The thought of you, now spring is coming on,

Requires that I should exercise control.’

Though modest, funny Betjeman always played down his achievements, it’s clear he was good at the press-attaché job.

When he left Dublin, the Irish Times declared, ‘He took the highest possible view of his duties as press attaché and looked upon it as his duty not only to interpret England to the Irish, but also to interpret Ireland sympathetically to the English, and if any English pressman or visitor went away with an unsympathetic view of Ireland, it was not the fault of Mr Betjeman.’