And they inveigled me Down to the ruins Of the abbey by the stream, Leaving the everyday words for Latin. Before an altar of nettles, Blackbirds and starlings Flew from the vestry. Back in the local I drank Guinness, Told them the village was alive With the ghosts of dead monks. He has a lively, buoyant personality, a fresh adventurous imagination and delights in verbal dexterity. His fine poetic intelligence is sometimes indebted to that able craftsman, Austin Clarke, particularly in the word-play.
Some poems have the freshness of folk tales, the magic of myth and legend.
The unexpected is a cause of delight. Monahan's poems take place in a sunlit imagination where the blacker side of life, although not absent, is not allowed to darken the material. The Dance' takes place in a real place, a dance-hall in Granard, but the normality of the night is disturbed by the dancer from 'nowhere'. A gleam in his eye. He was in such demand.