The Mermaid and Certain Words

Publication Instance Details #784

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	An Mhurúch agus Focail Áirithe
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. This part of the sequence highlights the mermaid's refusal to engage with any aspect of her past life, to the extent that she cannot tolerate hearing words like 'sea', 'brine' and 'tide'. She refuses to acknowledge that she wrote down a manuscript of tales for the School's Collection (an actual folklore project in mid-century Ireland). The mermaid's displacement is such that reminders of her true self and history cause her great trauma. The Great Famine and Irish cultural loss is understood to be implicit in this sequence of poems.