More Kavanagh

One of the talks at the Kavanagh weekend on the Saturday was My days with Patrick Kavanagh by Godfrey Graham. Godfrey was a cameraman with RTE for many years and also played cricket for Ireland. He talked about filming the 1966 documentary with Patrick Kavanagh in Dublin and Inniskeen. Frank McNally had said the previous night that Kavanagh had been a constant critic of RTE but was delighted to accept their offer to make a documentary with him.

Godfrey told us how when they were having a picnic lunch in Monaghan during the filming a cameraman from Ringsend spotted a kingfisher at the river and caught it. It had an injured wing. Kavanagh held it in his large hands and said I can feel its heart beating. Godfrey, like any good cameraman, grabbed his camera and filmed the hands with the injured bird and Kavanagh's face. His eyes were full of tears, Godfrey said. The clip was used in the film and is available on the RTE archives on this page.

Kavanagh took the injured bird back to his sisters' house where it was cared for.

Godfrey Graham joined RTÉ Television shortly after it was launched as one of its first lighting cameramen. For the next 40 years, he worked on some of the station's most significant programmes, including Discovery and the visit to Ireland of US President John F. Kennedy. In 1981, Graham won a Jacob's Award for his role as lighting cameraman on the RTÉ television production of Eugene McCabe's play Winter Music. He has written a book about his experiences Forty Years behind the Lens at RTE (2005)