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Press Coverage
Throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, Campbell continued to frequent Campbell’s Café,
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making friends with journalists and writers who later played a role in promoting his work.
Born in 1912, John Boyd, a friend of both Dillon and Campbell, was editor of the
Lagan
,
1945.
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He broadcast a BBC NI programme for Campbell,
George Campbell: Self-Portrait
.
John D. Stewart
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reviewed Campbell’s exhibitions in the
Gibraltar Chronicle
. Wesley Boyd,
friends with Campbell from the mid-1950s and head of News in RTÉ from 1974 to 1990,
wrote favourably on the artist in
The Irish Times
in the 1960s and was responsible for the
documentary film,
George Campbell, A Tribute,
following the artist’s death in June, 1979.
The artist Gladys MacCabe was a critic for the
Independent
in the 1970s and had known
Campbell socially
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in Belfast from the mid-1940s. Another close friend, Seamus Kelly,
known as ‘Quidnunc’, championed Campbell’s work regularly in the Irishman’s diary in
The
Irish Times
from 1949. A native of Belfast, Kelly was also a friend of Dillon and Armstrong. A
drama critic, he played the character of ‘Flask’ in the 1956 film adaption of
Moby Dick
. After
visiting Spain in 1946, Kelly was passionate on the subject of Spain. He and Campbell were
known to have heated discussions on guitar makers and boxing. Kelly visited the Campbells
regularly in Malaga during the 1960s.
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Demolished in 1958, Danske Bank is now located on the site.
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Short lived, the
Lagan
was co-founded by John Boyd with writers Sam Hanna Bell and Bob Davidson.
Writers that contributed were W.R. Rogers, John Hewitt and Joseph Tomelty, all friends of the Belfast Boys.
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John D. Stewart was a visitor to the Ulster Arts Club in the 1960s.
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MacCabe painted George Campbell as a gypsy for a fancy dress party, (fig.86)
fig.86: Gladys MacCabe, ‘George
Campbell, Gypsy’, 1940’s.
fig.87: George Campbell and Seamus Kelly,
Malaga, 1960’s
fig.88: Seamus Kelly, Malaga, 1960’s
fig.89: Robert MacDonald, ‘Kelly’s in trouble
here, folks’, cartoon drawing (1968)