Why the Irish love song Raglan Road was written
The classic Irish song Raglan Road is one of the greatest love poems of the last century – yet it was a throwaway jibe about cabbages and turnips that led to it being written.
The song began life as a poem by the great Irish writer Patrick Kavanagh. He was the self-styled peasant poet because he often wrote about country and farming matters, even to the point of referring to vegetables.
In the early 1940s, Kavanagh fell in love with a beautiful young medical student called Hilda
