2016 Press Releases
A poem at Christmas
A slightly older contemporary of Seán Ó Ríordáin, who along with him fashioned the course of modern poetry in Irish, Máirtín Ó Direáin was born on Aran in 1910.
The following little poem, dated by him 'Nollaig 1942', is set against the background of the war then raging throughout the world. Like much of Ó Direáin's early poetry, it also expresses his own longing for an idyllic former life from which, as a civil servant in Dublin, working in the censorship office, he is now shut out for ever. He has described this period as 'the five most barren years of my life'.
Emeritus Professor of Modern Irish, Seán Ó'Coileáin
CUIREADH DO MHUIRE
An eol duit, a Mhuire,
Cá rachair i mbliana
Ag iarraidh foscaidh
Dod Leanbh Naofa
Tráth a bhfuil gach doras
Dúnta Ina Éadan
Ag fuath is uabhar
An chine dhaonna?
Deonaigh glacadh
Le cuireadh uaimse
Go hoileán mara
San iarthar chianda:
Beidh coinnle geala
I ngach fuinneoig lasta
Is tine mhóna
Ar theallach adhanta.
AN INVITATION TO MARY
Do you know, Mary,
Where you will go this year
Seeking shelter
For your Holy Child
When every door
Is shut in His face
By the hatred and pride
Of the human race?
Please accept
My invitation
To a sea-girt island
In the far-off west:
Bright candles will be
Lighting in every window
And a turf fire
Burning on the hearth.