Anyone interested in Kavanagh autobiography might try the most succinct expression of it:
'If Ever You Go To Dublin Town'. He sings it himself on a tape available from Claddagh (I think)
I picture the song in the same area of Dublin mentioned by Frank (McGrath) above.
Puts some flesh on the bones of the 'grumpy old git'
Bear in mind, too, that he disowned 'The Green Fool' later in his life
Anyone any comments on the relation to or possible resonance with the song in Irish?
I find the version I tracked down banal by comparison with Kavanagh - a lad gets brushed off by a milkmaid in the dawn.
Apart from the beauty of the title's imagery it has nothing that prefigures Kavanagh's take or even lives up to the melody