The Great Hunger

A theatrical performance of Patrick Kavanagh's poem

Peter Duffy’s powerful theatrical performance of Patrick Kavanagh’s poem The Great Hunger has been touring the country for the past year to popular and critical acclaim including performances in the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris and the Cathedral Quarter Festival in Belfast.

Generally considered to be Patrick Kavanagh’s finest work, The Great Hunger sharply delineates a life of economic and imaginative privation. A large part of the hunger the poem describes is sexual; its protagonist is bachelor farmer Patrick Maguire who has spent years at his mother’s beck and call. When she finally dies aged 91, he himself is 65 and has missed the boat in terms of finding a wife and having a family of his own, a source of acute sorrow and regret to him.

Peter Duffy himself grew up on a small Monaghan farm so has a ready affinity for Kavanagh’s material which informs and shines through his absorbing interpretation of the work.

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