Marking the occasion of Máire Mhac an tSaoi's 98th birthday, The Poetry Programme on RTÉ Radio brings us an archive clip from an interview which Olivia O'Leary recorded with her in 2000 as part of a series on RTÉ Radio 1 called 'In My Life’.
On her choice of languages, Máire said English is her 'everyday language' but the language that means most to her is 'certainly Irish'. I feel that when I write in Irish, I write with authority. I know that when I write in English that it is a pale reflection of what I could write in Irish.
"I can't help being colourful (in Irish), that's the nature of the language, the turf smoke clings to it, you know."
Máire Mhac an tSaoi, one of our finest Irish language poets, was born on 4th April 1922. She was the first Irish woman to be called to the Bar, served in the Irish diplomatic corps from 1947 to 1962, and was married to Conor Cruise O'Brien, who died in 2008. She published her first collection of poetry, Margadh na Saoire, in 1956 and went on to publish four more, as well as works of translation, a novella, scholarly work, and her autobiography The Same Age as the State.
Speaking about her pioneering writing on domesticity, Máire says the criticism she received was pointed towards the content of the writing, rather than the style:
'there was a very strong feeling that writing about kitchens and children and saucepans was not suitable material for 'real' poetry.
The Miraculous Parish/An Paróiste Miorúilteach, a selection of poems by Máire Mhac an tSaoi, was published by O'Brien Press and Cló Iar-Chonnacht in 2011.
Craoltar The Poetry Programme ar RTÉ Radio One on Sunday at 7.30
