Poem

Na Murúcha agus Galair Thógálacha

Title Na Murúcha agus Galair Thógálacha
Author Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill

Instances of Publication

A published appearance of this poem.

Collection/Anthology Year of Publication Medium View Details
Cead Aighnis 1998 Print Collection View Details
Feis agus Cead Aighnis 2015 Print Collection View Details
The Fifty Minute Mermaid 2007 Print Collection View Details
Publication Instance Details #721
Collection/Anthology Details
Collection/Anthology Feis agus Cead Aighnis
Date of Publication 2015
Publisher Cló Iar-Chonnachta (Ireland)
Page Number(s) 319-320
Publication Overview
Translation Is Multilingual Explicit Irish Context? Ekphrasis Has Paratext? Reference to News, Media or Technology
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
Details
Human Rights Issues
Irish Context
Languages
Genre Part Of Lyric Sequence
Medium Print Collection
Notes This sequence of poems, 'Na Murúcha a Thriomnaigh', makes use of the international folk tale of the mermaid to construct an allegorical world in which the merpeople have left the water and now live uneasily among humankind on earth. In this poem, the speaker describes the various diseases and ailments which carry off a significant portion of the population of the merfolk. They are described as a 'virgin population' having no immunity against certain diseases in the host culture such as tuberculoisis, mumps, measles, malaria, and cholera. (This is reminiscent of certain Native peoples' susceptibility to Western diseases which decimated their populations). i.e. smallpox in Native American peoples. Numerous references to folk beliefs regarding disease. The Great Famine and Irish cultural loss is often understood to be implicit in this sequence.
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