Is the emergence of a new group of poets evidence of a renaissance of writing in the Irish language?
How important is the recent flowering of poetry in the Irish language? A new book by poet Máirtín Ó Direáin printed in Irish with English translations provided by poet Tomás Mac Síomóin and critic Douglas Sealy.
Douglas Sealy the grandson of Douglas Hyde, the first President of Ireland and a leading figure in the Gaelic revival. In 1903, Hyde published a bilingual volume of poetry from the blind poet Antoine Ó Raifteiri (1779-1835). The latest publication Máirtín Ó Direáin is the first bilingual volume of poetry in over 80 years. Douglas Sealy says that history is repeating itself and believes that the time has come to put Irish poetry back into the English language.
There is a growing realisation that in spite of all that has been done for the Irish language, the number of people who actually understand what is written is not getting any bigger.
Douglas Sealy believes this will allow Irish poets to influence writing in English. This is one of the reasons why Douglas Sealy and Tomás Mac Síomóin translated the Máirtín Ó Direáin work to English. They describe his work as a boundary mark between the old and the new.
Gael Linn published a recording of Máirtín Ó Direáin reading his poems in Irish. One of those recordings is of 'Sic Transit' read by the poet in Irish and then read in studio by Douglas Sealy in English.
Eoghan Ó hAnluain, Irish language lecturer at University College Dublin, describes Máirtín Ó Direáin as a unique poet standing between the poetry of the 1930s and the renaissance of the 1940s and 1950s.
I think that by the end of the sixties, he had written his best poetry.
Many of the poets of the 1960s, came as a reaction to the work of Máirtín Ó Direáin. Much of their work was published in the magazine 'Innti' which became the main vehicle for their poetry.
This episode of 'Folio - The World of Books' was broadcast on 12 February 1985. The presenter is Patrick Gallagher.
'Folio' was initially a general arts programme, first broadcast on 20 September 1977 with a performance of 'La Ventana' by the Irish Ballet Company. The first series was subtitled 'The Arts in Ireland' and 'The World of Books' on alternate weeks, with Ciarán MacGonigal presenting the arts editions while Tom McGurk and Patrick Gallagher presented the literary ones. From the second series on, it became a book programme, though still taking an occasional look at theatre and other arts. It ran until 1985.
