Mermaid with Parish Priest

Publication Instance Details #794

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 Gender-based violence
Irish Context	Emigration (from Ireland) Irish Language/Culture Other Specific Irish place or place-name mentioned Great Famine (Ireland)
Languages	English
Original Language	Irish
Original Poem	An Mhurúch agus an Sagart Paróiste
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 an event in which the mermaid, a clever child in school, is invited over to the priest's house, where he proceeds to sexually abuse her. This occurs for a period, before the mermaid refuses to return. Her trauma at the abuse appears to continue through her life, with her mother dismissing the abuse. The mermaid turns her back on everything that reminds her of the time: the bible, the Irish language, and going to mass. This poem brings up serious issues of clerical power which are reminiscent of sex abuse scandals in the Irish Catholic Church. The Great Famine and Irish cultural loss is understood to be implicit in this sequence of poems.