The Kavanagh Scarf Collection

Poet Patrick Kavanagh inspires

Liz muses, “A poet came to visit our school when I was a young one of about twelve. A Cavan poet, called Tom McIntyre. As he spoke, I was enthralled. I think he was doing a reading in the school that day, probably for the leaving cert students. I drank in his presence, a real living poet!  And then, I was aware that he was speaking to me. I quickly focused my eyes, and he was telling me that I had “a typical Monaghan face, with a ‘far away from home’ look in my eyes”. I think that the poet recognised something in me… maybe a bit of that Monaghan ‘quareness’.”

Liz recollected this memory one day as she reflected on Patrick Kavanagh, his poetry and his ‘place’ in Monaghan. Sharing his emotions on Monaghan, she is reminded of a wonderful evening spent at The Tyrone Guthrie Centre, an artist’s retreat in Annamakerrig. There was a performance, by the Abbey players, of ‘The Great Hunger’, a very special adaptation of Patrick Kavanagh’s poem by none other than Tom McIntyre!

“My mother and I travelled there that summer evening with Tommy McArdle, one of ‘The Twins’ and another great man of words from Monaghan. There followed a ‘dance’, with music provided by The Glen Miller Legacy Big Band.  It was surreal. What a night of swing among the spuds!”

This story encapsulates the ordinary and the extraordinary, and it captures how Liz weaves the essence of Kavanagh into this beautiful scarf collection.