Kavanagh, Patrick (Joseph Gregory) | Introduction
Patrick (Joseph Gregory) Kavanagh 1905–1967
Irish poet and novelist.
Kavanagh wrote in the shadow of Yeats and Joyce but nonetheless received critical acclaim. His long poem "The Great Hunger" established his reputation and is perhaps unexcelled in its bitter evocation of peasant life. In 1939 he left his country birthplace, Monaghan, for Dublin. There he wrote criticism, satire, and poetry but his irascible nature kept him apart from the literary establishment which he often ridiculed. His autobiographical novels, The Green Fool and Tarry Flynn, do not match the power of the lyrical beauty and wry humor of his verse.
(See also Contemporary Authors, obituary, Vols. 25-28, rev. ed.)
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