Scholars see red over poet tribute

IT IS the kind of controversy that the mischievous devil in Patrick Kavanagh would have relished: the dead poet, the very much alive beauty and the perplexed academics — all locked in a battle for the hearts and minds of literate Ireland.

The dead poet is Kavanagh himself. The beauty none other than Miss World Rosanna Davison and the academics are those aficionados of the poet who fear that her involvement in Kavanagh’s centenary celebrations are not quite kosher.

They feel that the honour to mark the birth of one of Ireland’s greatest poets should go to fellow legends like Seamus Heaney or Paul Durkan.