This is old news by now, but in case you haven’t heard, John McGahern died suddenly on Thursday, March 30th. I was on the road when his death was announced, en route to read with the delightful Scaldy Detail contributors in The Potato Market in Crescent Quay in Wexford town, so it was a shock when Sean Clerkin announced he was reading a poem in McGahern’s memory. A beautiful poem it was too (Clerkin is an under-rated poet, possibly because he has published only one book).
McGahern’s passing somehow reminds me of lines by the equally mourned Michael Hartnett:

this head is a poet’s head,

this head holds a galaxy.

All that culture and knowledge and grace, gone with him into the grave…
I never knew him, but reading tributes over the weekend, it was obvious what a wonderful companion he was, and I’m sure my heart is not the only one to go out to his widow, Madeleine.

See Sinéad Gleeson’s The Sigla Blog