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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to many people in the compilation of this biography:
Mrs Jeanne Krochalis helped to organise my visit to the Mugar Memorial Library and was most hospitable during my stay in Boston. Maureen Lynch (Patrick Kavanagh’s niece) kindly lent me photographs, tape recordings, copies of family papers and press cuttings. John and Madeline McGahern invited me to stay at their home in Leitrim during my research and treated me to a feast of food and literary conversation. Peter McKenzie, who conducted a series of interviews with Peggy Rushton (née Gough), gave me permission to use those sections which concerned Patrick Kavanagh. Eunan O’Halpin sent me excerpts from the diaries of his father, Padraig O’Halpin, which recorded encounters and conversations with Patrick Kavanagh. Rosemarie Rowley generously lent me the typescript of her interview with Katherine Kavanagh. Jimmy Swift entrusted me with his copy of the 1956 typescript of poems sent to Nimbus.
I am particularly grateful to those who responded to my public requests for information concerning Patrick Kavanagh and his contexts, shared their memories with me in person, by telephone or by letter, lent me texts and photographs:
Leland Bardwell, Sheila Bradshaw, Jim Byrne, Dr Anthony Carroll, Maureen Charlton, George Coghlan, Marie Louise Colbert, Harry Cole, Patricia Collins, Bonnie Cotter, the late Thérèse Cronin, Anthony Cronin, Eamon Delaney, Paul Durcan, Lavinia Allen Farrelly, Dr Jennifer Fitzgerald, Aisling Foster, Sheila Gillespie, Robert Greacen, Martin Green, Vona Groarke, Eusebius Hanratty, the late Dr Patrick Henchy, Leo Henry, Maurice Henry, Noel Henry, Nancy Hurley, Vivien Igoe, Frank Prenton Jones, Aidan Kelly, the late Deirdre Kelly, Brendan Kennelly, Frances Daly and Benedict Kiely, Niall Lawlor, Dr Sheila Lawlor, James Liddy, Brian Lynch, Frank McEvoy, Bernard McGuinness, Jim McGuinness, Tony McInerney, T. P. McKenna, Desmond MacNamara, Priscilla MacNamara, Deirdre Manifold, Mairead Manifold, Helen Moloney, John Montague, Val Mulkerns, Richard Murphy, Esther Ní Brolcháin, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, the late Tom Nisbet, Conor O’Callaghan, Niall O’Carroll, Andrew O’Connor, Donal O’Donovan, Dermot J. O’Flynn, John O’Grady, Miceál Ó Muirceartaigh, Dr Dorothy O’Neill, Philip Pocock, Father John Quinn PP, Dee Ryan, Senator Eoin and Joan Ryan, Maeve Ryan, Annette Sheedy, Larry Sheedy, Anne Sheils, Constance Short, Finbarr Slattery, Dr Michael Solomons, Father Tom Stack, John Stafford, Jimmy Swift, Patrick Waldron, Cormac Walsh, Elinor Wiltshire, Macdara Woods, J. Howard Wodmer.
Many librarians facilitated my research, some of them not known to me by name:
Tara Wenger at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, the University of Texas at Austin; Dr Seán Noel at the Mugar Memorial Library, Boston City University; Nick Lee, Bristol University Library; the librarians at the British Library, London; Dr Chris Petter, University of Victoria Library, British Columbia; Dr Susan Michel-Giolando, the Lockwood Memorial Library, State University of New York at Buffalo; the librarians at Cambridge University, England; Ann Cleary at Dundalk Institute of Technology Library; the librarians at the Central Catholic Library, the National Archives, the National Library of Ireland, and Royal Irish Academy Library, Dublin; from the Library of Trinity College, Dublin: Charles Benson, Keeper of Early Printed Books and Special Collections, Bernard Meehan, Keeper of Manuscripts, and Felicity O’Mahony in the Manuscripts Department, Liz Gleeson in the Berkeley Library and Isolde Harpur in the Lecky Library; Dr David Sheehy, librarian in charge of the Archbishop McQuaid Archive, the Chancellory, Drumcondra, Dublin; the librarians at Special Collections, the Morris Library, Carbondale University, Illinois; David Sutton and the Manuscripts Librarian at the University of Reading.
A special thank you to Ms Norma Jessop, the librarian in charge of Special Collections in the University College, Dublin Library at Belfield, which houses the Kavanagh Archive, the largest single collection of Kavanagh material. She has proved unfailingly obliging and helpful for many years now.
A number of people offered advice or support during the preparation of this book, suggested useful avenues of research or helped in a variety of ways:
Fiona Ahern, Dr Suzanne Brown, Professor Terence Brown, Gene Carroll, Aoife Crowley, Noirin Curtis, Gerald Dawe, the editor of the Dundalk Democrat, Dr Aileen Douglas, Dr Eileen Drew, Clodagh Fitzgerald, Dr Sheila Greene, Eleanor Grene, Rita Henry, Eleanor Keogh, Professor Edna Longley and Michael Longley, Maeve McCluskey, Uinseann MacEoin, Mrs George Mangan, Geraldine Mangan, Dr Stephen Matterson, Hugh McFadden, Christine and Tim O’Neill, Donnach O’Neill, Michael O’Sullivan, Stephen O’Sullivan, Eamon Ó Tuathaill, Tamsin and Douglas Palmer, Daig Quinn, the late Mrs Tom Quinn, Dr Anthony Roche, Professor Ian Ross, Professor Ruth Sherry.
I first read Patrick Kavanagh’s poetry in the Collected Poems given to me by my sister, the late Laureen Coffey, for Christmas 1967.
I wish to thank that best of literary agents, Jonathan Williams, who took a real interest in the project from the outset, provided the names and addresses of several informants, read the entire book, and made numerous valuable suggestions.
Nicholas Grene, Professor of English Literature at Trinity College, Dublin, took time out from his busy schedule to read the book in typescript, as he had done for my earlier book on Kavanagh. Once again, as then, and as so often in the past when we were colleagues, I have benefited greatly from his advice, encouragement and kindness.
Last, but not least, I thank my husband Brian Crowley for his good humour and patience over the past few years when ‘there were three in our marriage’.
Quotations from the writings of Patrick Kavanagh are printed by kind permission of the Trustees of the Estate of the late Katherine B. Kavanagh, through the Jonathan Williams Literary Agency.
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About the Author
Dr Antoinette Quinn is a Fellow Emeritus of Trinity College, Dublin. Her book Patrick Kavanagh: Born Again Romantic is the established critical study of his writings. She is the editor of two collections of Kavanagh’s poetry, Patrick Kavanagh: Selected Poems and Patrick Kavanagh: Collected Poems as well as a selection of his prose, A Poet’s Country: Selected Prose.
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Patrick Kavanagh, a Biography Page 71
