Patrick Kavanagh was born in Inniskeen, County Monaghan, in 1904. His verse collections included Ploughman and Other Poems (1936), A Soul for Sale and Other Poems (1947) and Come Dance with Kitty Stobling (1960). He also wrote the novel Tarry Flynn (1948) and his autobiography The Green Fool (1938). He died in 1967.

Antoinette Quinn is the author of Patrick Kavanagh: A Biography (2001) and editor of Patrick Kavanagh: A Poet's Country, Selected Prose (2003) and of his Selected Poems (1996). She lives in Dublin.