NUALA NI DHOMHNAILL (b.

1952)
06/05/2011

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 mid-poem 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 both 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 principally found in rural pockets on the western seaboard 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

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 express 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 Wnting no woman All macho boasting Last night they bedded A Grecian princess -

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) challenging 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 ike 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