'It is a strange thing to put your own name to a book, knowing that such a river has been fed by streams of makers, thinkers and collaborators...' Acclaimed poet Annemarie Ní Churreáin introduces her new collection Hymn to All the Restless Girls.
How did a single encounter with a poet change my life? In the 1990s I was a teenager when I was invited to attend The Poets' House (now The Song House) in north west Donegal. There, under the watchful gaze of Muckish Mountain, and surrounded by Lugh Lámhfhada and other ghosts, I listened eagerly as the visiting poet spoke about the art and craft of making poems. Leland Bardwell was the poet’s name and her self-possessed voice was unlike any voice I’d encountered before. I left that workshop newly fired up by the possibilities of a life in writing. Years later I stumbled upon Leland’s autobiography, A Restless Life, and was inspired to write a poem which is now the title poem of my new collection, Hymn to All the Restless Girls.
Hymn to All the Restless Girls celebrates the wildness of the girl who is known sometimes as a rebel and a truth-speaker. She is often, necessarily, a troublemaker. In some poems the restless girl channels the grit and imagination of my grandmother, Mary Thaidhg, who had endless béaloideas, piseoga and leigheasanna. Elsewhere, she makes appearances as Bridget Cleary, Sinéad O'Connor and Annie Murphy. Drawing light across dark shadows of the Irish State and Catholicism, the book offers 'prayers of defiance, sacraments of identification and howls of protest’ for those sisters and foremothers who tended a sacred flame as many in Ireland were figuring out who we are and what we stand for.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Listen, via RnaG: An file, Annemarie Ní Churreáin
‘Poetry is not an ambition; it’s a condition’. Leland’s words are still with me today as I wrestle with this irrepressible desire to plumb the subconscious and transmute my findings into poems. It is a condition that has led me along unexpected paths and into candlelit corners. This latest book sits in conversation with stories from the Donegal County Archives, The Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA), and the National Folklore Collection where I spent glorious hours during my time as 2025 UCD/ Arts Council Writer in Residence. The poems have deep roots in the purple heathers and lakelight of my new home in Loch na nDeorán in the Donegal Gaeltacht, and is delicately stitched, here and there, with Irish-language words. A central poetry sequence explores the Irish tradition of ‘fiachairecht’, the ancient art of looking to ravens for omens and prophecy.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Listen: Annemarie Ní Churreáin talks to Poetry People on RTÉ Radio 1
It is a strange thing to put your own name to a book, knowing that such a river has been fed by streams of makers, thinkers and collaborators. The writing was set in motion by Leland’s word ‘restless’ and it has been greatly energised by my quests through opera and documentary-making with composer Michael Gallen to uncover and record traditions of folk medicine in Ireland. Many poems are lit by a connection to the marvellous work of Lucy Ní hAodhagáin, of Wild Awake Ireland, and her teachings around ceremony, ritual and respect for the land. It’s my hope that Hymn to All the Restless Girls will open up certain questions. How can we learn from the instincts of the restless girl? What can we discover by being in flow?
Annemarie Ní Churreáin is the 2025 UCD/Arts Council Writer in Residence. She is the Poetry Editor at The Stinging Fly. Hymn to All the Restless Girls is published by The Gallery Press
