Poet Thomas Kinsella has said that a visit today to his old primary school in Dublin will be his last public engagement.
The 90-year-old visited Model School Inchicore - a school that he immortalised in one of his most known works - Songs of the Psyche.
Kinsella, who in that work and others explored the internal self and its interface with the public sphere, said today that the school was where he "entered life".
He said it was where he "began to see around me, get outside myself, and be introduced to the very first ideas of the arts, science and religion".
He told RTÉ News that this would be his last public engagement. "My time for expression and communication is at an end," he said.
The poet, who in a long and distinguished career sometimes went against the grain, praised the "kindness" of those who had taught him as a child.
He said kindness enabled teachers to introduce their pupils to "amazing entities, in a simple way".
Along with President Michael D Higgins, Mr Kinsella celebrated the school's opening of its "secret garden" and a sculpture inspired by pupils.
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