Seamus recited it for me at the Magnum Ireland photographic launch in Imma. Brendan Kennelly whenever you meet, You will leave indelibly richer.

Short and sweet. Kennelly rhymes with indelibly. Well, almost.

I sat at his feet in Listowel, " Seamus told me, in 1975 before you were born." Could he run that by me again? In 1975 before you were born, " he repeated, louder, so other people could hear. I just wanted to make sure I heard him the first time.

Camera-shy photographer Tom Hunter, artist in residence at Imma and beloved by collectors like Charles Saatchi, was the first photographer to have a solo exhibition at London's National Gallery with his recreations of old masters. He has won the John Kobal Photographic Portrait Prize for 'Woman Reading a Possession Order', inspired by Vermeer's 'A Girl Reading at an Open Window'. He immortalized his friend Suzanne McKeever from the Mermaid Cafe in 'Traveller Series 1' and 'The Glass of Wine'. I recreate scenes of poverty, rape, murder, sometimes from stories I read in the local paper, " Tom said. In one, an 80year-old woman posed in a room infested with cockroaches. ?I bought the cockroaches on the internet."

Alive? They arrived dead and dried."

Aoife Carrigy, from Food & Wine, ever so politely passed on the canapes.