For those of a separatist outlook and inclined to look for political portents in such matters, the running of the Irish Oaks 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh racecourse in July 1921 must have made for worrying viewing.  It was just over a week after a truce had called a halt to Ireland’s War of Independence and it was the very same day as the British prime minister, in a letter to Eamon de Valera, set out his government’s proposals for a settlement of the Irish question that fell far short of the fully independent republic that the Irish people (the…

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