Thursday 19 August 2010

Patrick Kavanagh, Poet (1904 - 1967)

"Leafy-with-love banks and the green waters of the canal
Pouring redemption for me"

This sculpture of Patrick Kavanagh is on the banks of the Grand Canal between Leeson Street and Baggot Street bridges. It is my favourite Dublin sculpture. The poet is sitting on a bench facing the canal and he did indeed spend a lot of time here, undoubtably getting inspiration from this wonderful peaceful setting. The hustle and bustle of the city is all around yet there is a tranquility here that is hard to explain. The sculpture is by John Coll and not only is it life-sized but the bench is an actual proper bench you can sit on. I often had my lunch here alfresco in the 1990's sitting on the bench beside Paddy, but eventually I had to find an alternative spot because tourists were constantly appearing with cameras. And you had to (a) pose with the poet: then; (b) take a snap of said tourist sitting beside the bard of Inniskeen.

Kavanagh wrote the ballad "Raglan Road" featured in my blog on Tuesday.

3 comments:

faye said...

Wonderful sculptures.
Too bad you had to give
up your lunch with the poet.

Valerie said...

Tourists do often get in one's way. It's an amazing sculpture, and so different to the norm. No wonder you like it there.

Zuzana said...

You have no idea how much that name means to me.;))
xoxo