NUALA NI DHOMHNAILL (b.

1952)
MEDBH McGUCKIAN (b.1950)
20 / 01 / 2017

NUALA NI DHOMHNAILL

NUALA NI DHOMHNAILL

writes only in Irish

dual-language collections of poetry
...writing Irish poetry in English
suddenly seemed a very stupid thing to
be doing. I switched language in midpoem and wrote the very same poem in
Irish, and I could see immediately that
it was much better.

NUALA NI DHOMHNAILL

writing in Irish as a literary and

political statement
a natural language in which to write
a way to recover the female voice in
Irish poetry that the English male
tradition gradually eclipsed
I feel that what I represent is the
aboriginal Irish somehow.

NUALA NI DHOMHNAILL

Irish in the Irish context is the

language of the Mothers, because
everything that has been done to
women has been done to Irish. It has
been marginalized, its status has
been taken from it...

NUALA NI DHOMHNAILL

Irish - spoken by a small minority of

native speakers primarily found in
rural pockets in the West
the Gaeltacht - Irish-speaking
communities
the number of Irish speakers:
60,000, or about 2 percent of the
population of the Republic of Ireland

NUALA NI DHOMHNAILL

biblical stories set beside the

tales of Irish folklore
The Language Issue
the unforeseen voyage this poem
might take
touching on the politics of the
Irish/English language

The Language Issue

I place my hope on the water
In this little boat
Of the languge, the way a body might put
an infant
in a basket of intertwined
iris eaves
...

The Language Issue

...
only to have it borne hither and
thither,
not knowing where it might end up;
in the lap perhaps,
of some Pharaos daughter.

NUALA NI DHOMHNAILL

poetic speakers from Irish mythology ,

Celtic legends and fairy tales
fascinated with the otherworld
images of strong women, (warrior)
goddesses and queens
restores the goddesses to the
independent and active roles they once
had

NUALA NI DHOMHNAILL

In Gaelic society before the 16th and

17th ct colonization of Ireland,
women enjoyed a higher status
and greater independence than
they have since
literary evidence suggests that
women shared equal status with men

NUALA NI DHOMHNAILL

her female speakers wield authority

equal to or greater than that of
their male counterparts
they expresses responses to the
external world
assertive and very self-cofident
women

Medb Speaks
War I will declare from now
On all men of Ireland
On all the corner boys
Lying curled in childrens cradles
Their willies worthless
Wanting no woman
All macho boasting
Last night they bedded
A Grecian princess -

(Medb Speaks)

NUALA NI DHOMHNAILL

a relationship btw. mythological

figures and contemporary women
women readily confront men and
sometimes become the aggressors
linking gender and political
oppression

NUALA NI DHOMHNAILL

parallels between the images of

Christian saints and goddesses from
Irish mythology
challenging the notions of Christian
asceticism and images of woman
promoted by the Catholic Church

Annunciations
Remember
O most tender virgin Mary
That never was it known
That a man came to you
In the darkness alone

NUALA NI DHOMHNAILL

challenging the denial of the flesh

(Bolands Flesh is heretic)
subverting patriarchal oppression of
Christianity
women condemned for their
sensuality

The Visitor
You are welcome here, my Lord,
make yourself comfortable, at home

You take no notice of me ...

Here I stand naked in front of you,
I am not worthy ...
Domine non sum dignus ...

Monk
I am temptation.
You know me.
Sometimes Im Eve,
Sometimes the snake:
I slide into your reverie
In the middle of brightest day.
I shine like the sun in an orchard.

Monk
But its not to torment you
Every day I rise
But to drown you
In loves delights.
...
Thats the only reason I haunt you:
my monk, my apostle, my priest.

NUALA NI DHOMHNAILL

the inversion of the usual casting of

woman as muse and as national territory
an altered perspective
a woman writer returning the
compliment to males writers
Your nude body is an island / asprawl
on the ocean bed. How / beautiful your
limbs ...
(Island)

NUALA NI DHOMHNAILL

the body in Irish remains extremely

open and un-coy
almost impossible to be "rude" or
"vulgar" in Irish
the body becomes a source of
laughter rather than anything to be
ashamed of

NUALA NI DHOMHNAILL

exploring the female psyche

encouraging an interrogation of
established mythic representations