WATCH: 'We have poets, painters, and asylum seekers now on the Grand Canal...'

Dozens of homeless asylum seekers pitched tents along the Grand Canal in Dublin on Sunday.  Picture: Stephen Collins/Collins

“We have poets, painters and asylum seekers now on the Grand Canal, just as the sun is shining down. I’m sure Kavanagh could write a great poem about that.”

So spoke one local man, while he was painting a canvas just yards from the statue of poet Patrick Kavanagh, on the sun-dappled leafy banks of the canal, with Dublin's latest tented encampment pitched nearby