The Assimilated Merfolk

Publication Instance Details #772

Publication Overview

Translation	Is Multilingual	Explicit Irish Context?	Ekphrasis	Has Paratext?	Reference to News, Media or Technology
Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No

Details

Human Rights Issues	Displacement/Forced Migration Health
Irish Context	Emigration (from Ireland) Irish Language/Culture Great Famine (Ireland)
Languages	English
Original Language	Irish
Original Poem	Na Murúcha a Thriomaigh
Original Author	Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill
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 land. The exact cause of their displacement is not made explicit in the sequence, although there is one reference to 'cineghlanadh' (ethnic cleansing). This poem, the opening poem of the sequence, introduces the speaker of the sequence, who reports the history and coming-to-land of the merpeople in a detached, journalistic fashion. Mentions of their various ailments and diseases, both physical and mental, as well as creation of a sense of cultural trauma and displacement. There are numerous references to folk medicine and folk beliefs that they adhere to. The Great Famine and Irish cultural loss is often understood to be implicit in this sequence of poems, but other contexts could also be imagined. The word 'assimilated' is not a literal translation of the verb 'triomaigh' which can mean 'to dry', 'to fall silent', 'to be left high and dry', 'to be washed ashore'.