Katherine Kavanagh

Born Katherine Barry Moloney in 1928 in Wilton Terrace Dublin, into a family with strong Republican connections. An uncle, Kevin Barry, was executed during the War of Independence. Educated Scoil Bhríde, Dublin and Loreto convent, Stephen’s Green.

She left school and trained for office work, worked for a time in Bord Fáilte, then in office jobs in London in the 1950s and 60s, a friend of artists and writers including Robert Colquhoun, Robert MacBryde, George Barker, Elizabeth Smart and Anthony Cronin.

She met Patrick Kavanagh there in the flat of the poet Leland Bardwell, married him after a nine year relationship in 1967, the year of his death. She had returned to Dublin to marry, and she continued to work there after her husband’s death until her own health failed in the mid-1980s.

She encouraged many younger writers including Paul Durcan, Macdara Woods, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Philip Casey.

She died in 1989, and is buried with Patrick Kavanagh in Inniskeen.