50th anniversary of Patrick Kavanagh's death: ‘And you smile up at us eternally’
A formidable line-up of writers and poets gathered at the former St Mary’s Church graveyard in Inniskeen to pay tribute to Patrick Kavanagh, a man attuned to the beauty of the commonplace.
On the 50th anniversary of his death, they paid him the ultimate tribute, reading from his works in his birthplace, Inniskeen, Co Monaghan. Poet Caitríona Ní Chléirchín, also from Monaghan, read In Memory Of My Mother, with the befitting final line “And you smile up at us eternally”.
Writer Pat McCabe, another native of Kavanagh County, delivered a pitch-perfect Fr Mat, so softly “a man could hear if he listened to the breeze, the fall of wings”.
Memory of My Father, Stony Grey Soil, Advent — the beauty of which even Leaving Certificate students can appreciate — held an audience of a couple of hundred captive, among them members of the Kavanagh tribe who laid a wreath on his grave, marked by a simple wooden cross.
The ceremony played out to the haunting sound of ‘Raglan Road’ on the uileann pipes as the crowd moved on to the nearby Patrick Kavanagh Resource Centre, where Fiona Jane Hyslop, visiting Scottish cabinet secretary for culture and tourism, described the event as “a special cultural moment”.
“There can be no doubt about the importance of poetry to this land,” she said adding that “the preciousness of the poetry of Kavanagh must be remembered”.
Former arts minister Heather Humphreys had been due to attend but an overnight switch to minister for enterprise under a Cabinet reshuffle meant her place was taken instead by Feargal Ó Coigligh, the assistant general secretary of her former department.
Monaghan County Council chief executive Eamonn O’Sullivan said Monaghan’s “most famous son” had “left a huge legacy” and the challenge going forward would be to make it accessible to 21st-century visitors.
