Remembering Patrick Kavanagh 50 years on

THE poet Patrick Kavanagh will be remembered 50 years in his native Inniskeen fifty years after his death at the annual weekend of poetry, music and talks,

Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Helen Humperies open sproceedings on Friday at 7pm while Professor Dermot Ferriter delivers the keynote address: ‘Irishmen, as make poor lovers - sex and society in Patrick’s Kavanagh’s Ireland.’ The winner of the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award will be announced on Friday evening followed by the launch of a three CD collection ‘Love’s Doorway to Life - an alternative biography of Patrick Kavanagh’, scripted and narrated by Art Agnew and Una Agnew. The evening ends with music by The Timnetravellers from America.

Saturday gets under way early with a walking tour of Kavanagh Country followed by a reading from the 2017 Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award winners. There will be talks on farming and food in Monaghan in Kavanagh’s time, the landscape which influenced his work, and a look at the poetry of Kavanagh and Seamus Heaney. Later that evening, Belfast’s Lyric Theatre present a reading of Heaney’s Station Island.

Noel Monahan runs a workshop for young poets on Sunday morning, followed by a bus tour at 1pm and annual graveside commemoration. Paddy Cullivan talks about society in Kavanagh’s time.