".Murray is to be thanked for adding to the great chorus demanding change but, tragically, the kind of optimism needed to imagine her arguments might prevail is in ever shorter supply."
In 1939 Patrick Kavanagh came to Dublin to work full-time as a writer. A daunting task at any time, in 1940s Dublin this was almost impossible.
Kavanagh observed that âpoetry is a luxury trade⦠a man has no business adventuring into it unless he has buckets of moneyâ. Despite many war-time shortages, jealousy and petty snobbery were in plentiful supply. The big raw-boned Monaghan man striding Dublinâs streets drew sneers from city slickers. (On observing a man driving a manure cart, one wag said acidly: âI see Paddy Kavanagh is moving houseâ).
Nonetheless, by the early 1950s Kavanagh was a well-known literary figure, having produced critically-acclaimed â if controversial â work such as The Green Fool and Tarry Flynn, and a long poem, The Great Hunger, which depicted the loneliness, depression and sexual frustration of the small farmer.