Lack of Sympathy

Publication Instance Details #779

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
Irish Context	Emigration (from Ireland) Irish Language/Culture Specific Irish place or place-name mentioned Great Famine (Ireland)
Languages	English
Original Language	Irish
Original Poem	Easpa Comhbhróin
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 earth. The speaker of this poem describes the remarkable lack of sympathy encountered by the merpeople on the many accidental deaths of mer-children who, ironically, drowned. Peig Sayers is notably mentioned, with the speaker giving her bereavement and ostracisation as an example of the treatment that the merpeople got after similar events. The 'host' land-based culture is portrayed as superstitious and suspicious of the merfolk. The Great Famine and Irish cultural loss is often often understood to be implicit in this sequence of poems.