Patrick Galvin

Patrick Galvin was born in Cork and served in the RAF during the Second World War. His poetry collections include Heart of Grace (1957), Christ in London (1960), The Death of Art O'Leary (1992) and New and Selected Poems (1996). He has also recorded seven albums of Irish ballads. Galvin's radio play Class of '39 was broadcast by BBC Radio 4 to great acclaim. Among his plays for the stage are And Him Stretched, The Last Burning, and The Devil's Own People. Galvin's three volumes of autobiography - Song for a Poor Boy: A Cork Childhood (1990), Song for a Raggy Boy (1991), and Song for a Fly Boy (2002) - were published together in one volume in 2002. His screen adaptation of Song for a Raggy Boy was released in 2003. Galvin received the O'Shaughnessy Award for poetry in 1995. He co-founded the Poetry Now Festival and the Munster Literature Centre, and he was editor of the Southword literary journal. Patrick Galvin lived in Cork until his death in 2011.