Meehan named Ireland Professor of Poetry

Dublin’s “informal poet laureate” Paula Meehan has been named Ireland Professor of Poetry.

The poet and playwright is the second woman to be awarded the prestigious post, set up in 1998 after the late Seamus Heaney won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Meehan, who has worked with prisoners and people from disadvantaged backgrounds, is regarded as giving a voice to people and places that are often marginalised and forgotten.