We lost the campaign... but we learnt something

When you lose a campaign, it is easy to lose heart. The future looks like a grimmer place with less humour. You wonder why others, whom you thought shared similar views, did not seem to get on board. The 'Remain' camp grieve for the United Kingdom that we thought we were living in. The 'Leave' camp wallow in joyful division. And as if our imminent departure from the EU wasn't bad enough... 

...it's looking like the Finnginn campaign to save the portrait of James Joyce in the Temple Bar has failed. We gathered what signatures we could and had messages of support from far away exotic places like Rio de Janeiro and Weymouth, but ultimately the people's voice was ignored and the picture has been removed and replaced by wainscotting.

The original artist even caught wind of the campaign and got in touch to say that the he based the portrait not on James Joyce, but on the keyboardist Ron Mael best known for his time playing with Sparks.

The missing portrait.

James Joyce

Sparks keyboardist Ron Mael

I'd like to thank everybody who signed the petition, especially those who took time to comment:

We lost the campaign to save the chalkboard portrait of James Joyce, but maybe we were thinking too small. My colleague, Lydia, suggested we should have a campaign for a better portrait of James Joyce.

Similarly with the 'Remain' campaign. We lost. The UK will be leaving the EU and for a time this will likely make things a bit shitter for the poorest and most vulnerable. We cannot allow the Conservative Party and their neo-liberal backers to turn this country into an offshore tax haven for the super-rich. Now is the time to ramp up the campaign for a better society as part of a better world.