Poem

An Mhurúch is a hIníon

Title An Mhurúch is a hIníon
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 #762
Collection/Anthology Details
Collection/Anthology Cead Aighnis
Date of Publication 1998
Publisher An Sagart (Ireland)
Page Number(s) 145
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. The speaker of the poem describes the fraught relationship between the mermaid and her daughter, expressed through the mermaid attempting to obsessively control her daughter's appearance and prevent her from going out with boys. The mermaid, on her deathbed, claims that the only thing that saved her was her fear of men. The speaker of the poem isn't sure about this, even stating that it's likely it is the other way around. The Great Famine and Irish cultural loss is understood to be implicit in this sequence of poems.
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