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Sat 10 Oct 2009Loose Leaves
Monumental Montague: The public landmark birthdays of a number of senior statesmen of Irish letters which began last year was a remarkable phenomenon which one of them, John Montague, spoke about at the Paris leg of his own 80th birthday celebrations last weekend. The birthdays – of Tom Kinsella (80), Brian Friel (80), Seamus Heaney (70) and Michael Longley (70), as well as himself, must, said Montague, signify something.
Montague was speaking at a lunch in the Irish Embassy on Avenue Foch, most memorably interrupted by the Ambassador, Paul Kavanagh, to announce – given that some of the guests were American, with Montague born in Brooklyn – that Barack Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize.
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