I just can't imagine Ben Kiely (1919-2007) lying about something like that. He was a man of great integrity. In 1999, RTE did a docu on Luke Kelly in which he sang 'Raglan Road' and no mention was made of him having played any part in suggesting the traditional melody. Surely if he had that was the time to say so. In fact Kavanagh sang the song to Kelly in the Bailey pub in Dublin around 1966. So Luke got the whole song, words and melody from Paddy.

Kavanagh lived at 19 Raglan Road, Dublin 1943-44. So he may well have spotted Hilda Moriarty on that very street. Hilda was a medical student, later a prominent psychiatrist. She died in 1991. When Kavanagh first met her, he was engaged to Nola o'Driscoll, daughter of Michael Collins' sister Margaret. The Kavanagh/Hilda "romance" was certainly well over by 10 January 1946, when Kavanagh published a short story, 'The Lay of the Crooked Knight', wryly describing how he pretended to change to please her,                                                               

'He put on an artificial accent…he had been fond of his bottle of stout…the lady advised him to take sherry…she told him not to smoke cigarettes except with a holder…she chose new clothes for him. "Bedad, I ought to plaze you now" he said in his excitement, showing the old vulgar tongue in all its grossness'.

Then one evening,

'He rang her on the phone, she was out...later that evening he rang again. Still not in…he went down the town…he could hardly believe his eyes…it was indeed she walking with a man whom the knight placed as…active young country solicitor.'

When Kavanagh died, Hilda sent a wreath of red roses shaped as an 'H'.