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Sat 02 Feb 2007How Charlie came to be painted as a man of the artsCultureShock:For the arts in Ireland over the past 40 years, Charles Haughey's presence is almost as unsettling as it is for Irish politicsWhen Edward McGuire was painting his series of portraits of Charles Haughey, he was living in a remote part of Wicklow. Knowing that Haughey was coming for a sitting, he asked the famously extravagant politician to stop at the post office and collect a telegram that was waiting for him. When Haughey arrived at the painter's door, his cheery greeting was "You owe me 2/6" - the cost of the telegram. Charles Haughey's patronage of the arts - the subject of the first film in the new series of RTÉ's fine Arts Lives documentary strand - had its limits. Whatever Irish art got from him, it paid back with interest.