Poet. Patrick Kavanagh was a 20th century Irish poet and novelist. He was known for his poems on the subject of what he knew, the common Irish people living in poverty. Some critics thought that his writings, with the mentioning of famine and emotional despair, were too harsh. Born the fourth of ten children in an Irish Catholic household, he left school at the age of 13 to become an apprentice in his father's cobbler shop. His grandfather's surname was "Kevany", and according to the family, the name was changed to Kavanagh by the priest, who baptized him. His grandfather was a schoolteacher before his marriage. He exceled in soccer becoming a goalkeeper. In 1928 he published a poem in two newspapers, the "Dundalk Democrat" and the "Irish Independent." Within a few years, more poems would be published in the "Irish Statesman." In 1931 he left home, walking 80 miles to his brother's home to meet noted author and literary critic, George William Russell. Russell mentored Kavanagh in his writing and gave him numerous books of literary greats to read. In 1936 he published his first collection of poems, "Ploughman and Other Poems." After going to London for five months in 1938, he wrote "The Green Fool," a loosely autobiographical novel, which gave him international recognition. During World War II, Ireland remained neutral, yet the war impacted him and other Irish writers with the loss of their London publishers. He was often rejected socially by other writers, who were more educated and who he felt, looked down on him with his humble beginnings. In 1942 he published his long poem "The Great Hunger," which gave a bitter look at a peasant's life. Critics in New York and London were giving him positive reviews. First published in 1943, his poem "On Raglan Road" became the lyrics of a favorite Irish song. After the war, he worked as a journalist and wrote for a Catholic magazine. His 1948 novel, "Tarry Flynn," was banned at first but twenty years later, his most noted piece was adapted to a play. In 1949 Kavanagh began to write a monthly "Diary" for the literary magazine, "Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art." In 1954 he was diagnosed with lung cancer and successfully had a lobectomy. After recuperating, he accepted a lecturing post at University College in Dublin. Other poem collections are "Come Dance with Kitty Stobling, and Other Poems " in 1960 and "A Soul for Sale: Poems" in 1947. He became ill at the opening of the play "Tarry Flynn," dying a few days later. In honor of him, the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award is an Irish poetry award for a collection of poems by an author who has not previously been published in collected form. In Dublin, his full-sized statue is sitting on a park bench along the Grand Cannel and a waxed statue is on display at the National Wax Museum. In Disney World in Orlando, Florida, there is a statue of him as well as several other places around the world. Behind W. B. Yeats, he is considered the best poet of Ireland. When the "Irish Times" compiled in 2000 the top fifty poems of Ireland, he had ten poems in the fifty. He married his longtime partner Katherine Barry Moloney in April of 1967.