On fine days, Paddy Finnegan stands outside Trinity College in Dublin selling the Big Issues. He's well known in the city. Friends rushing by often stop to say hello and take a break with him to watch the world go by.

Many know Finnegan as a poet, an Irish speaker and a gifted wordsmith. His latest work is about to be launched on a limited edition CD. Entitled Fíon, Ceol Agus Filíocht, it's a compendium of poems by himself and writers such as Pádraic Colum, Patrick Galvin and Brendan Kennelly.

Born in Kilkerrin, Co Galway, Finnegan is not, he says, a prodigious writer, not even a compulsive writer. "I only rarely write, and when I'm under the influence of the muse I just might get a poem out of it," he says. "It's about time I came up with some new stuff. I hope people like the CD. There are one or two new poems in it. I think In Memoriam To Samuel Beckett is a good one."

Finnegan has also "been involved in two proper books. I had the honour of being invited to contribute to a book for Brendan Kennelly for his 60th birthday in 1996". And he contributed to a book of Irish translations of Yeats's poems. "That was another pleasure, to be regarded as competent enough to translate . . . The Lake Isle Of Inisfree."

Finnegan, who is 60, has his home in Pimlico. "I live alone, but not in a bee-loud glade," he says, smiling. "I am content. I do not strive for happiness, because I think it's a chimera. I don't think happiness is achievable, certainly not on a perpetual basis in this world. If you were to win the Lotto it would not make you happy, but it would greatly exalt the quality of your unhappiness."

Finnegan, who was once a bus conductor, is philosophical about failing his final-year English exams at University College Dublin many years ago. "I dandled along, more drinking and courting than studying," he recalls. "I didn't deserve to graduate in English. I simply knew that I couldn't. I didn't apply myself to my studies, although I passed Irish. I always passed Irish. I have a natural flair for it, I suppose."

Today he is proud to sell the Big Issues. "Since the day it started I'm the senior seller and a silent seller. I do not cry my wares. I do not compete with the internal combustion engine and the other unpleasant street noises . . . \ there are enough lunatics, winos and gobbaloons roaring and shouting to themselves. I should not like to be confused with one of those. I introduced the concept of silent selling . . . The Big Issues earns a very significant part of my income. I would be rather uncomfortable without it."