There is, it turns out (who knew?), a statute of the Duke of Wellington at the top of a tall tower in a small town in Ireland. It appears to be a well-loved local monument, and quite rightly so. The Iron Duke – as we’ve discussed here before on the Corner – was a man to admire. Unfortunately, a busybody has written to the local paper saying that the locals should “remove this reactionary figure and replace him with a son or daughter of your own country”. That busybody was, I regret to say, American.

Wellington’s family first arrived in Ireland in 1226, a little some earlier, some might point out, since those pilgrims first set out on the Mayflower.