Tipperary jockey Rachael Blackmore among celebrities recorded reciting Patrick Kavanagh poems for new album

Killenaule champion jockey Rachael Blackmore is among a star-studded array of celebrities, from President Michael D. Higgins to Bono, to recite Patrick Kavanagh’s poetry on a new album celebrating the work of the great Monaghan poet.

The Aintree Grand National and Cheltenham Gold Cup winner aptly recites the beautiful poem Pegasus on the album Patrick Kavanagh – Almost Everything, which celebrates the magnificent work of the Monaghan poet and is due to be released by Claddagh Records on 24th November.

Pegasus is about an old horse at the end of its days that has been “offered for sale at 20 fairs”. The horse is also a metaphor for the poet’s soul offered for sale to ‘church and state and the commonest trade’, but in the last stanza the horse grows wings and transforms into the mythical Pegasus and departs from this world.

President Michael D. Higgins, U2 frontman Bono, Hollywood action man Liam Neeson, Oscar-nominated actress Jessie Buckley, Kathleen Watkins, singer Imelda May, Jessie Buckley, Kathleen Watkins, Imelda May, Christy Moore, Hozier, Aidan Gillen, Lisa McGee, Lisa Hannigan, Sharon Corr, Aisling Bea and Evanna Lynch are the other famous people who recorded Kavanagh poetry for the album.

Neeson, for example, recites Kavanagh’s elegiac In Memory of My Father on Almost Everything while Bono reads On Raglan Road and President Higgins recites Stony Gray Soil.

Almost everything is actually a double album.
The celebrity performances of Kavanagh’s poetry will be accompanied by a re-release of the only recording featuring Patrick Kavanagh reciting his own poetry.

This album was originally recorded by Claddagh Records in 1964, just three years before the poet’s death. It was remastered for its re-release.

Upon its September 23 release, Fast Everything will be available on vinyl, CD and other formats. It will include a booklet with all of the poetry heard on the album.

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