Famous Irishmen.

(1905-1967)

Patrick Kavanagh was an Irish poet who drew on his experience of life in Ireland for much of his poetry. Kavanagh was born in County Monaghan at Mucker near Inniskeen, where his father was a shoemaker and small farmer. In his early life he worked as a shoemaker and on his father's farm, he later moved to Dublin and became a critic and journalist. He was befriended by A. E. (George Russell), he soon began to establish a reputation not only for his literary skills, but as a drinker and

He published his first collection of poems, Ploughman and Other Poems, in 1936. In 1947 he published A Soul for Sale which was widely considered to be his finest work. His other works include The Great Hunger (1942) and Come Dance with Kitty Stobling (1960) and Tarry Flynn.

Perhaps Kavanagh's most famous poem is "On Raglan Road," is often sung to the tune of the traditional Irish air "The Dawning of the Day."

Kavanagh died on 30th November 1967 and was buried in the grave yard of the church he attended as a boy, Kavanagh along with WB Yeates are widely regarded as the two most influential Irish poets of the twentieth century.

Visit the Patrick Kavanagh website.

Read the words of and listen to the tune Raglan Road. and a few other of Kavanagh's poems.