October 21, 1904

Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh was born in Co. Monaghan on this day in 1904. Kavanagh is perhaps most famous for his epic poem “The Great Hunger” which chronicles the desires of peasant farmer Patrick Maguire. Kavanagh is also well known for his poem “Raglan Road” which was eventually made into a song and set to the music “The Dawning of the Day” by Luke Kelly and The Dubliners. Poet Seamus Heaney has acknowledge that Kavanagh had a great influence on his own poems.