Raglan Road

This masterpiece of a song, Raglan Road, was written by Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh. Or at least the lyrics were; the melody is Irish traditional.

The song tells of Kavanagh’s love affair with medical student, Hilda Moriarty. 

Kavanagh was living on Raglan Road in Dublin when he saw Hilda passing by in 1944. The couple had a brief relationship but it was not to be. 

In an interview many years later, Hilda said the reason was the age gap. She was only 22 at the time and Kavanagh was 40.  

Hilda went on to become a doctor and marry Donogh O’Malley, who became Irish Minister for Health. 

Hilda later explained how she had influenced Kavanagh’s work. He was from a poor rural background and was known as the Peasant Poet.  

Hilda said: “I upbraided him about his writing about cabbages and turnips. I said he should write something else. 

“Oh, he said, I’ll write something else and that was the origin of Raglan Road.” 

She seemed pleased to have inspired one of Ireland’s greatest ever love songs. 

The song and the story it tells are so popular that people even dress up as the two lovers for parties. 

Raglan Road was made famous by Luke Kelly.  

Kelly said he met Kavanagh one evening at Bailey’s pub in Dublin, where he as his fellow Dubliners often met for a drink and for impromptu singing sessions. 

Kavanagh heard Kelly singing and then turned to him said, “you should sing my song”. 

Kelly was happy to oblige, in fact he gave the impression that he felt privileged to have been asked as Kavanagh was a celebrated poet at the time, while Kelly was still trying to make his name on the traditional folk circuit.

Within a few years, the tables were turned and Kelly was by far the more famous of the two. Ironically, this was partly because Raglan Road proved so popular and helped to establish Kelly as one of the leading folk singers of his generation.

Raglan Road has since been recorded by numerous singers, many of them outside the expected folk circuit, including names like Ed Sheeran, Van Morrison, Roger Daltrey and Mark Knopfler. 

This is my version with some helpful background notes on the video.