Slimming for the Beach

The Irish Times (reg­is­tra­tion only) has con­firmed that Peter Kavanagh, younger brother of the poet Patrick Kavanagh, is to be buried at Inniskeen in Co Mon­aghan, fol­low­ing his death on Sat­ur­day in New York at the age of 89.

The arti­cle by Seán O’Driscoll in New York and Marie O’Halloran quotes Colm McCann’s rec­ol­lec­tion that

“if any­one dared have a go at Patrick, Peter was known for speak­ing out very force­fully on behalf of his brother’s legacy … he bright­ened up when any­one showed inter­est in Patrick’s work”.

It also quotes Mac­Dara Woods:

“He did a huge amount in sup­port of Patrick, in pro­mul­gat­ing his poetry, in mak­ing sure it appeared at all,” said Mac­dara Woods, a poet and friend of Patrick Kavanagh’s. He added: “Peter pub­lished a huge amount about Patrick” — includ­ing PK, Man and Poet; Novem­ber Hag­gard, uncol­lected prose and verse; The Sacred Keeper, a biog­ra­phy of the poet; Lapped Fur­rows, a book of cor­re­spon­dence between the two broth­ers; and Patrick Kavanagh 1904–1967, A Life Chron­i­cle, a biog­ra­phy he pub­lished in 2000. “He believed he had a par­tic­u­lar duty and oblig­a­tion, from God as it were, to be the keeper of the flame.”

That’s an extra­or­di­nary legacy for any man. After his long and intense labours, may he rest in peace.