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Written by Tom O'Brien, Directed by John Dunne. Additional Show for Secondary Schools 11a.m.

On Raglan Road,explores Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh's obsession with his muse and inspiration, Hilda Moriarty. The play also details Kavanagh's rivalry with another Irish writer of the time, Brendan Behan, who himself died in 1964. Patrick Kavanagh was born in the village of Inniskeen, Co.Monaghan, in 1904 and is now regarded as Ireland's most important poet after WB Yeats. The son of a shoemaker and small farmer, he moved to Dublin in his mid thirties where he lived in poverty for most of his life, surviving on handouts, the occasional bit of journalism, but mostly being supported by his younger brother, Peter.On Raglan Roadis a poem about his love affair with Hilda Moriarty, which was doomed from the start.Always a controversial figure, he was hated as much as loved in Dublin, and his long-running fued with Brendan Behan is well chronicled.

Written by Waterford playwrightTom O'Brien,the play is full of pathos and is mixed with poetry and song.

The play is directed by John Dunne, who has taken the essence of Kavanagh and placed him slap bang on stage.

 

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