'I was nine when I knelt for a funeral cortege — 35 years later I learned it was for Seán Ó Riada'

Poet John FitzGerald recalls a school day when he had to kneel with the rest of the pupils on a street in a Cork town as a display of respect by the boys of Macroom NS for Seán Ó Riada and his family. He tells Helen O’Callaghan how it wasn’t until years later that he fully understood what the moment meant