Poetry readings led by Heaney

The crowd at a May Day reading of poetry in the Dublin Writers Museum yesterday morning was enough to flatter a living poet, let alone one dead for 200 years.

Yesterday was the bicentenary of James Clarence Mangan's birth. He was a poet "who seems more likely to endure on his bicentenary than he did on his centenary", said Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney.

Mr Heaney led the tributes to the man he described as "one of Ireland's most frequently forgotten poets".

Guests were welcomed by Ms Claire Martin, widow of the late Prof Augustine Martin of UCD. Prof Martin had been the general editor of Mangan's Collected Works.

Mr Heaney surprised the gathering by delivering a long unpublicised paper on Mangan's life and work, which included a stirring reading of one of his best-known poems, A Vision of Connaught in the Thirteenth Century. He in turn was surprised by a presentation to him of the first copy of Mangan's Selected Poems, newly published by the Irish Academic Press.

Other participants included former Taoiseach Mr Garrett FitzGerald, and poets Mr Theo Dorgan and Ms Paula Meehan. Mr Des Geraghty, president of SIPTU, read Mangan's Róisín Dubh, and one of his own poems. Readings, papers and discussions of Mangan's work were given by academics and writers Mr Peter van de Kamp, Mr Jacques Chuto, Ms Evelyn Conlon, at the Castle Inn. Poet and Big Issue seller Mr Paddy Finnegan finished off the day's formalities with a recitation.