A chara, – In “Francis Bacon’s Nanny: A peek into the darkness of the artist’s childhood” (Books, July 13th), we read: “At the age of 16, Francis Bacon would leave Ireland never to return”. In the early 1980s, I saw Francis Bacon on a number of occasions walking in the south city centre of Dublin. In the summer of 1983, I was introduced to him and shook his hand in the Viking Bar on Dame Street. He was in the company of Dublin-based friends. He was a man of the most distinctive appearance, and there is no doubt during this period that he was a frequent visitor to Dublin. – Yours, etc,
DESMOND WHITE,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.