Liam Clancy/Poetry.

Liam Clancy/Poetry.

If "Raglan Road" can lay claim to being the best known poem by an Irish artist then Austin Clarke's "The Planter's Daughter" must surely be the second on the list. I heard it first on The Makem and Clancy Album recorded at The Gaiety in 1977 and most recently in - Live At The Bitter End- broadcast last weekend by RTE. Described by Bob Dylan as probably the best ballad singer of them all, Liam Clancy was probably the best performing poet of them all as well, though given to changing the odd word here or there, and usually for the better! I liked his old version of the above. On the tribute show on St Partrick's Night on RTE Radio (If my memory serves me well) he recited a poem about Rafferty, or written by Rafferty, or maybe Padraic Fallon. I tried looking it up? Maybe it was "Mary Hynes". As he said himself quoting Beaudelair "One should always be drunk". He will be missed.

Photos: Orla Fay and friend and James Linnane at The Boyne Readings.