Leafy-with-love banks and the green waters of the canal Pouring redemption for me (Kavanagh)
Hailing from Inniskeen, Co. Monaghan at the start of the twentieth century, Kavanagh became an apprentice shoemaker, gave that the boot and worked on the family farm for the next two decades soaking up all around him before making the move Dublin just before the Emergency broke out.
Kavanagh penned his epic poem The Great Hunger during the war years, controversial at the time but not enough to dissuade Kavanagh from giving up the pen even where it embroiled him in disagreements, some of which landed him on court. After the war he released Tarry Flynn only to engage in a more personal war of words, the outcome of which took its toll on his health, after which he took a lecturing role in UCD, which were always popular with his students, not always so with the establishment.
Kavanagh is commerorated around Dublin, including the canal bank seat where visitors can while away a peaceful hour or so today, not far from Castle Leslie Hotel
