Picture: Riona MacMonagle
SEVERAL years ago Killarney man Niall MacMonagle taught English and drama to a young student by the name of Graham Norton in Bandon.
But at a gala ceremony in London in recent days it was the hugely popular BBC chat show host that stood at the top of the room as he read extracts from his former teacher’s brilliant new collection of poetry.
Niall (61) recently published Windharp: Poems of Ireland Since 1916 which, he hopes, reflects the country’s people and beliefs, its landscape, passions and politics since the Easter Rising.
The valuable collection of great verse comes with personal introductions to each piece by Niall, the son of Lil and the late Sean MacMonagle, Lewis Road, who is acknowledged as Ireland’s most trusted poetry commentator.
The London launch of the book, by the Irish Ambassador Dan Mulhall, was a very glitzy affair at the Irish Embassy and the event included readings by actor Fiona Shaw and funnyman Norton who described his former teacher’s latest work as “an instant classic”.
The MacMonagle clan travelled en masse to the big event and Niall was joined by his wife Mary and daughter Catherine, brothers Philip, John and David, sister Riona, their spouses Kay, Paddy and Bonnie, and his nieces and nephews Sharon MacMonagle, Hannah and Lorca Maher, Rourke MacMonagle and Louis and John MacMonagle.
They all later attended a recording of the Graham Norton chat show which featured special guests Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Justin Bieber and Downton Abbey’s Dame Maggie Smith.
The gifted Niall developed a love for print and the smell of ink during summers working in Killarney Printing Works which was founded by his grandfather, Daniel, and developed by his father and his uncle Paddy.
Niall traces his love for poetry and the English language back to his childhood in Killarney where he was educated in the Presentation Convent and, later, the Presentation Monastery where he first developed a passion and a talent for learning poetry by heart.
* Windharp Poems of Ireland Since 1916 is published by Penguin Ireland
