Born in 1927 at 13 Margaret Street, in the north of inner Cork city, Patrick Galvin is at the same time a quintessential Corkman and a writer with a place in world literature. He contrived to skip school prematurely, "by having a birth certificate altered by a master-forger in Barrack Street for a half-crown." Having worked as messenger boy, newspaper boy, and cinema projectionist, he went to Belfast in 1943, intending to join the American Air Force, but instead ended up in the RAF, once again under age. He served in Bomber Command in the UK and the Middle East, and with Coastal Command in Africa.

In the 1950s he began writing poetry, and was also discovered by the traditional musician and collector, Seamus Ennis, who encouraged him as a folk-singer. He recorded several albums in the UK and the US. His first book of poetry was Heart of Grace (1959). He moved back to Dublin in 1962, as his first play, And Him Stretched, was staged in London.

After some further stage productions, books of poetry, and travels in Europe and Israel, he returned to Ireland in 1969. The first volume of his poetry to be published in Ireland was The Wood Burners, which was issued by New Writers' Press in 1973. He moved to Belfast, where he served as resident dramatist at the Lyric Theatre, 1974-77, writing and directing.

Many more plays and several volumes of poetry appeared in the following years. Song for a Poor Boy, the first of three volumes of memoirs appeared in 1990. This has now been reissued, bound with its fellows, Song for a Raggy Boy and Song for a Fly Boy, in one volume as The Raggy Boy Trilogy. Song for a Raggy Boy was released as a major motion picture, starring Aidan Quinn, in 2003.

Patrick Galvin was elected to Aosdána in 1984, and has received the Irish-American Cultural Institute Award for Poetry. He now lives in Cork.