Patrick Kavanagh

Patrick Kavanagh (21 October 1904 – 30 November 1967) was an Irish poet and novelist. His best-known works include the novel Tarry Flynn, and the poems "On Raglan Road" and "The Great Hunger". He is known for his accounts of Irish life through reference to the everyday and commonplace.

Life and work

Early life

Patrick Kavanagh was born in rural Inniskeen, County Monaghan, in 1904, the fourth of ten children of James Kavanagh and Bridget Quinn. His grandfather was a schoolteacher called "Kevany", which a local priest changed to "Kavanagh" at his baptism. The grandfather had to leave the area following a scandal and never taught in a national school again, but married and raised a family in Tullamore. Patrick Kavanagh's father, James, was a cobbler and farmer. Kavanagh's brother Peter became a university professor and writer, two of their sisters were teachers, three became nurses, and one became a nun.

Patrick Kavanagh was a pupil at Kednaminsha National School from 1909 to 1916, leaving in sixth class at the age of 13. He became apprenticed to his father as a shoemaker and worked on his farm. He was also goalkeeper for the Inniskeen Gaelic football team. He later reflected: "Although the literal idea of the peasant is of a farm labouring person, in fact a peasant is all that mass of mankind which lives below a certain level of consciousness. They live in the dark cave of the unconscious and they scream when they see the light." He also commented that, although he had grown up in a poor district, "the real poverty was lack of enlightenment [and] I am afraid this fog of unknowing affected me dreadfully."

Writing career

thumb|right|[[George William Russell, Kavanagh's literary advisor and mentor]]

Kavanagh's first published work appeared in 1928 It is notable for its realistic portrayal of Irish country life, free of the romantic sentiment often seen at the time in rural poems, a trait he abhorred. The book, which recounted Kavanagh's rural childhood and his attempts to become a writer, received international recognition and good reviews.

The Emergency

The outbreak of World War II (known as The Emergency in the Republic of Ireland) had a damaging effect on the emerging careers of some Irish writers, including Flann O'Brien as well as Kavanagh

During this time he met John Betjeman who was based in Dublin during the Emergency nominally as a press attaché but also working for British intelligence. Betjeman, impressed by Kavanagh's wide range of social contacts, his ability to get invited to events, and his political ambiguity, tried to recruit him as a British spy.

In 1942 he published his long poem The Great Hunger, which describes the privations and hardship of the rural life he knew well. Although it was rumoured at the time that all copies of Horizon, the literary magazine in which it was published, were seized by the Garda Síochána, Kavanagh denied that this had occurred, saying later that he was visited by two Gardaí at his home (probably in connection with an investigation of Horizon under the Special Powers Act). Written from the viewpoint of a single peasant against the historical background of famine and emotional despair, the poem is often held by critics to be Kavanagh's finest work. It set out to counter the saccharine romanticising of the Irish literary establishment in its view of peasant life. Richard Murphy in The New York Times Book Review described it as "a great work" and Robin Skelton in Poetry praised it as "a vision of mythic intensity". Tarry Flynn, a semi-autobiographical novel, was published in 1948 and was banned for a time.

Later career

thumb|250px|Patrick Kavanagh by [[Patrick Swift, lithograph, 1956, NPG, London]]

In 1949 Kavanagh began to write a monthly "Diary" for Envoy, a literary publication founded by John Ryan, who became a lifelong friend and benefactor. Envoys offices were at 39 Grafton Street, but most of the journal's business was conducted in a nearby pub, McDaid's, which Kavanagh subsequently adopted as his local. Through Envoy he came into contact with a circle of young artists and intellectuals including Anthony Cronin, Patrick Swift, John Jordan and the sculptor Desmond MacNamara, whose bust of Kavanagh is in the Irish National Writers Museum. Kavanagh often referred to these times as the period of his "poetic rebirth".

In 1952 Kavanagh published his own journal, Kavanagh’s Weekly: A Journal of Literature and Politics, in conjunction with, and financed by, his brother Peter. It ran to some 13 issues, from 12 April to 5 July 1952.

200px|thumb|right|Kavanagh's grave, Inniskeen

The Leader lawsuit and lung cancer

In 1954 two major events changed Kavanagh's life. First, he issued libel proceedings against a magazine called The Leader for publishing an anonymously-written profile of him as an alcoholic sponger. Kavanagh had made numerous enemies in his film and literary criticism and, as he had written diatribes against the Civil Service, the Arts Council and the Irish Language movement, there were many possible authors of the piece. Patrick Swift, on a visit to Dublin in 1956, was invited by Kavanagh to look at the typescript. Swift then arranged for the poems to be published in the English literary journal Nimbus(19 poems were published). This proved a turning point and Kavanagh began receiving the acclaim that he had always felt he deserved. His next collection, Come Dance with Kitty Stobling, was directly linked to the mini-collection in Nimbus.

Between 1959 and 1962 Kavanagh spent more time in London, where he contributed to Swift's X magazine. During this period Kavanagh occasionally stayed with the Swifts in Westbourne Terrace. He gave lectures at University College Dublin and in the United States, In the introduction Kavanagh wrote: "A man innocently dabbles in words and rhymes, and finds that it is his life."

Marriage and death

thumbnail|left|The poet "pondering the Stony Grey Soil of Monaghan at his native Inniskeen" in 1963

Kavanagh married his long-term companion Katherine Barry Moloney (niece of Kevin Barry) in April 1967 and they set up home together on Waterloo Road in Dublin. Heaney was introduced to Kavanagh's work by the writer Michael McLaverty when they taught together at St Thomas's, Belfast. Heaney and Kavanagh shared a belief in the capacity of the local, or parochial, to reveal the universal. Heaney once said that Kavanagh's poetry "had a transformative effect on the general culture and liberated the gifts of the poetic generations who came after him." Heaney noted: "Kavanagh is a truly representative modern figure in that his subversiveness was turned upon himself: dissatisfaction, both spiritual and artistic, is what inspired his growth.... His instruction and example helped us to see an essential difference between what he called the parochial and provincial mentalities". As Kavanagh put it: "All great civilizations are based on the parish". He concludes that Kavanagh's poetry vindicates his "indomitable faith in himself and in the art that made him so much more than himself".

thumb|300px|Patrick Kavanagh statue along the [[Grand Canal (Ireland)|Grand Canal in Dublin]]

thumb|300px|A wax statue of Kavanagh at the National Wax Museum, Dublin

The actor Russell Crowe has stated that he is a fan of Kavanagh. He commented: "I like the clarity and the emotiveness of Kavanagh. I like how he combines the kind of mystic into really clear, evocative work that can make you glad you are alive". On 24 February 2002, after winning the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in A Beautiful Mind, Crowe quoted Kavanagh during his acceptance speech at the 55th British Academy Film Awards. When he became aware that the Kavanagh quote had been cut from the final broadcast, Crowe became aggressive with the BBC producer responsible, Malcolm Gerrie. He said: "it was about a one minute fifty speech but they've cut a minute out of it". The poem that was cut was a four-line poem:

<poem>

To be a poet and not know the trade,

To be a lover and repel all women;

Twin ironies by which great saints are made,

The agonising pincer-jaws of heaven.

</poem>

When the Irish Times compiled a list of favourite Irish poems in 2000, ten of Kavanagh's poems were in the top 50, and he was rated the second favourite poet behind W. B. Yeats. Kavanagh's poem "On Raglan Road", set to the traditional air "Fáinne Geal an Lae", composed by Thomas Connellan in the 17th century, has been performed by numerous artists as diverse as Luke Kelly, Mark Knopfler, Billy Bragg, Sinéad O'Connor, Joan Osborne, Van Morrison and many others.

There is a statue of Kavanagh beside Dublin's Grand Canal, inspired by his poem "Lines written on a Seat on the Grand Canal, Dublin":

<poem>

O commemorate me where there is water

canal water preferably, so stilly

greeny at the heart of summer. Brother

commemorate me thus beautifully.

</poem>

This statue is featured in the short film Yu Ming Is Ainm Dom, about a Chinese man who learns Irish in order to live in Ireland.

Every 17 March, after the St Patrick's Day parade, a group of Kavanagh's friends gather at the Kavanagh seat on the banks of the Grand Canal at Mespil road in his honour. The seat was erected by his friends, led by John Ryan and Denis Dwyer, in 1968. A bronze sculpture of the writer stands outside the Palace Bar on Dublin's Fleet Street. There is also a statue of Patrick Kavanagh located outside the Irish pub and restaurant, Raglan Road, at Walt Disney World's Downtown Disney in Orlando, Florida. His poetic tribute to his friend the Irish American sculptor Jerome Connor was used in the plaque overlooking Dublin's Phoenix Park dedicated to Connor.

The Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award is presented each year for an unpublished collection of poems. The annual Patrick Kavanagh Weekend takes place on the last weekend in September in Inniskeen, County Monaghan, Ireland. The Patrick Kavanagh Centre, an interpretative centre set up to commemorate the poet, is located in Inniskeen.

Kavanagh Archive

In 1986, Peter Kavanagh negotiated the sale of Patrick Kavanagh's papers as well as a large collection of his own work devoted to the late poet to University College Dublin. The purchase was enabled by a public appeal for funds by the late Professor Gus Martin. Peter included in the sale his original hand press which he had built. The archive is housed in a special collections room in UCD's library, and the hand press is on loan to the Patrick Kavanagh Centre, Inniskeen.

The contents include: This was disputed by the late Peter Kavanagh who continued publishing his work after Patrick's death. This dispute led some books to go out of print. Most of his work is now available in the UK and Ireland but the status in the United States is more uncertain.

Works

Poetry

1936 – Ploughman and Other Poems
1942 – The Great Hunger
1947 – A Soul For Sale
1958 – Recent Poems
1960 – Come Dance with Kitty Stobling and Other Poems
1964 – Collected Poems ()
1972 – The Complete Poems of Patrick Kavanagh, edited by Peter Kavanagh
1978 – Lough Derg
1996 – Selected Poems, edited by Antoinette Quinn ()
2004 – Collected Poems, edited by Antoinette Quinn ()

Prose

1938 – The Green Fool
1948 – Tarry Flynn ()
1964 – Self Portrait – recording
1967 – Collected Pruse
1971 – November Haggard a collection of prose and poetry edited by Peter Kavanagh
1978 – By Night Unstarred. A conflated novel, completed by Peter Kavanagh
2002 – A Poet's Country: Selected Prose, edited by Antoinette Quinn ()

Dramatisations

1966 – Tarry Flynn, adapted by P. J. O'Connor
1986 – The Great Hunger, adapted by Tom Mac Intyre
1992 – Out of That Childhood Country John McArdle’s (1992), co-written with his brother Tommy and Eugene MacCabe, is about Kavanagh’s youth loosely based on his writings.
1997 – Tarry Flynn, adapted by Conall Morrison (modern dance and play)
2004 – The Green Fool, adapted by Upstate Theatre Project

References

External links

Profile and poems at the Poetry Archive
Poetry Foundation profile and poems
Profile from the Patrick Kavanagh Trust
The Patrick Kavanagh Centre
Ten pages of written profile and audio files RTÉ libraries and archives. "Portrait of Patrick Kavanagh".
Patrick Kavanagh Grand Canal South Bank Seat