Every day’s a school day. As recently as yesterday, I had never heard of Nancy Spain except in the great Irish ballad of that name, usually sung by Christy Moore (including once, in an amped-up punk version with Moving Hearts). If you’d told me then there was a real-life Nancy, I’d have guessed she was one of the Spains of Limerick or Tipperary, where the surname has a presence.
Then I found myself reading the diaries of Evelyn Waugh, where the actual Nancy Spain (1917–1964) makes a dramatic appearance. And as I now realise, she was an English tabloid journalist and broadcaster, best known for a column in the Daily Express.
So far, I can’t find evidence that she visited Ireland, unlike the heroine of the ballad, who “left these shores” with
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