“God is in the bits and pieces of Everyday”: The Great Hunger and the sacramentality of Patrick Kavanagh the “poet-theologian”

Patrick Kavanagh's “The Great Hunger” earned Kavanagh a place in the pantheon of Irish poets for the searing realism of its portrayal of Irish country life. This study examines what the celebrated long poem can reveal about his provocative claim that “a poet is a theologian”. It argues that the concept of sacramentality holds the key to understanding the dynamic relationship between poetry and theology as conjured by Kavanagh's figure of the poet-theologian. Kavanagh's bold sacramentality, rooted in the fundamentals of sacramental theology, models his visionary conviction that “God is in the bits and pieces of Everyday”.