ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author describes his relationship with Eric Bogle's work over a lifetime. As an art historian the author aware that art means different things to different people and so there is no reason to believe that his understanding of Bogle's oeuvre is in any way superior to anybody else's. In Turkey, beer fueled and accordingly impassioned, everyone, himself included, sang Bogle's song from beginning to end as a kind of tribute to the film's protagonist, Archy. No one missed a syllable. It seemed entirely pertinent not only to the other fictional character in the song who had suffered in 1915, but to those real people who continued to do so at home in Northern Ireland. The author like to bring the introduction to a close by noting that Bogle's scrapbook contains two very telling and highly contrasting items. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
