Patrick Kavanagh was born in Mucker, Iniskeen, County Monaghan, where he grew up on a small farm. For a time he worked as a shoemaker. Ploughman and other poems was published in 1938, and in 1939 he moved to Dublin, where he contributed to The Bell, Envoy and the Dublin Magazine. He wrote film criticism for the Irish Press under the pseudonym Piers Plowman. With his brother Peter he published Kavanagh's Weekly. In 1957 he became a Lecturer in Extra-Mural Studies at University College, Dublin. His publications include novels The Green Fool (1938) and Tarry Flynn (1948) and several collections of poetry: The Great Hunger; A Soul for Sale and Come Dance with Kitty Stobling. His collected poems appeared in 1964 and his collected prose in 1967. By Night Unstarred, his last novel, was published posthumously in 1977. He is recognised as a major Irish poet.

Born:	21 October 1905
Died:	1967