This is an extrordinary thread, it sarted in 2001! Marvellous theories, interpretations mixed with truths, half truths, blind guesswork and nonsense. The thread has such a life of its own that I'm half reluctant to add in some facts in case I dampen its spirit but there is much speculation about who the "her" is.

It is fairly well accepted that the poem, written by Patrick Kavanagh in 1946, was the result of his obsession with Hilda Moriarty in 1944. Far from being a bakery worker or a prositute from Dublin, Hilda was the daughter of a doctor from Kerry. She was beautiful and intelligent. Once she did a screen test in Hollywood for a part which was given to Maureen O'Hara (The Quiet Man?).

She met Kavanagh in a Dublin pub in 1944 while she was a medical student at University College Dublin. She was 22. Kavanagh was 42 at this time, strugging with his writing and living in a bed-sit on Raglan Rd.and he appears to have become obsessed with her. She never reciprocated but they were at least friendly for a time. She read his poetry and books.

At some stage he told her that he wasnt able to write anymore, apparently she teased him that there was only so much you could write about farmyards - write about love. His response was Raglan Road. She graduated as a medical doctor in 1945. Kavangh remained obsessed and virtually stalked her until in 1947 she married Donogh O'Malley who later bacame the Irish Minister for Education.

Hilda travelled widely with O'Malley, she met JFK, Fidel Castro and at some stage became friends with Richard Harris. She is only known to have met Kavanagh once more before he died in 1967. Her husband died in 1968. She ran for his seat in Limerick, supported by Richard Harris who actually sang "Camelot" at her campaign hustings. She didnt win (lost out to her husband's nephew Dessie O'Malley). She died in 1991.