Tributes paid to iconic arts figure Anthony Cronin

Tributes have been paid to poet, novelist, biographer, and cultural activist Anthony Cronin, whose death was announced yesterday. He was 88.

The Arts Council described him as an iconic figure in Irish letters.

Arts Council chairwoman Sheila Pratschke said he was a rare example of the public intellectual in Irish life who was “committed, fearless, rigorous in his thought, and unashamedly forthright in his advocacy of what he thought right and good”.