patrick kavanagh was a pupil at kednaminsha national school from 1909 to 1916, leaving in the sixth year at the age of 13. he became apprenticed to his father as a shoemaker and worked on his farm. he was also goalkeeper for the inniskeen gaelic football team. he later reflected: "although the literal idea of the peasant is of a farm labouring person, in fact a peasant is all that mass of mankind which lives below a certain level of consciousness. they live in the dark cave of the unconscious and they scream when they see the light." he also commented that, although he had grown up in a poor district, "the real poverty was lack of enlightenment [and] i am afraid this fog of unknowing affected me dreadfully."