Detectives in Monaghan have confirmed that Dr Peter Kavanagh, together with a number of other people, has been questioned by Carrickmacross gardai investigating the removal of a monument from the grave of his late brother, the poet Patrick Kavanagh, at Inniskeen churchyard on Tuesday last.
According to Garda sources, a file is being prepared for the DPP. It was also revealed yesterday that the monument erected at Kavanagh's grave in memory of the writer and his widow, Katharine, was extensively damaged. Garda sources say it appears to have been broken up at the grave and pieces taken to waste ground some distance away, where they were scattered.
The monument was replaced by an old Burma-teak cross and stepping stones, which were previously in a garden at the Kavanagh homestead in Mucker, Co Monaghan, a short distance from the village where the poet grew up.
The sculptor, Mr Tom Glendon, said yesterday he was "very disappointed" to learn the monument had been wrecked. Gardai also interviewed the chairman of the Kavanagh Society, Mr Peter Murphy, an Independent member of Monaghan Co Council, who lives at Inniskeen, close to the Kavanagh home.