Donegal roots inspire Des’s debut collection
Retired Galway orthodontist Des Kavanagh, who has been a familiar presence at arts events and poetry readings for many years, has just launched his debut collection of poetry.
Binnion Road, published by Letterfrack’s Artisan House, has a foreword by the late poet, academic and literary critic, Seamus Deane, who died in May of this year. He describes Des’s poems as being “full of the names of people and places he knows or has known well”.
According to Deane, “names are great familiarisers and Kavanagh’s Ireland is a close and familiar place. But it also bears within it the ache of absence, not just for specific people, but for the world they inhabited, a world that made them and that they also made. Kavanagh’s ancestral Inishowen in Donegal, his family, in its old and new generations, often provide the pivot that turns him to the past, although it also allows for glimpses of the future, through children and grandchildren”.
Originally from the Inishowen Peninsula, Des was educated in St Columb’s College in Derry before going on to study at UCG and then UCD. He did postgraduate dental studies in London, training as an orthodontist before settling in Galway City where he set up a practice.
Des has always been a major supporter of the arts. He was a co-founder of the McGlinchey Summer School in Donegal and served as its chairman for many years. He has also had a long association with Clifden Arts Festival, where, with his friend Pete Mullineaux, he has presented an annual evening entitled Reading and Singing in the Bookies at Paddy Power’s betting shop – the event focuses on poems, songs and stories about horses, ponies and greyhounds.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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