I was born on the 21st of October 1904, in the village of Inniskeen, Co. Monaghan. My father was a shoemaker and had a small farm of land. At the age of thirteen, became an apprentice shoemaker. I gave it up 15 months later, admitting that I didn't make one wearable pair of boots. For the next 20 years, I would work on the family farm before moving to Dublin in 1939.My interest in literature and poetry marked me out as different to other people in my local place. In a society that was insular and agricultural, a man's worth was measured by the straightness of the furrow he could plough, rather than the lines of poetry he could write.My first attempts to become a published poet resulted in the publication of some poems in a local newspaper in the early 1930's, and by the publishing of my autobiographical novel by Tarry Flynn. In 1939 I moved to the city to establish myself as a writer. At that time, the Dublin Literary Society was dominated by an educated Anglo-Irish group with whom I had nothing in common. They saw me as a country bumpkin and referred to me as "That Monaghan Boy".My early years in Dublin were unproductive as I struggled for recognition. In 1947, my first major collection "A Soul for Sale", was published. These poems were the product of my Monaghan youth. In the early 1950's, myself and my brother Peter, published a weekly newspaper called "Kavanagh's Weekly".In 1954, I became embroiled in an infamous court case. I accused "The Leader" newspaper of slander. The newspaper decided to contest the case and employed the former Taoiseach, John A. Costello, as their defence council. I decided to prosecute the case myself and was destroyed by Costello. The court case dragged on for over a year and my health began to fail. In 1955, I was diagnosed as having lung cancer and had a lung removed, I survived and the event was a major turning point in my life and career.In 1958, I published "Come Dancing with Kitty Stobling". In 1959, I was appointed to the faculty of English in UCD by John A. Costello. In 1965, I married Katherine Malony. I died in 1967 from an attack of bronchitis. My reputation as a poet is based on the lyrical quality of my work, my mastery of language and form and my ability to transform the ordinary and the benal into something of significance. You be the judge of that...
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