Our Mermaid Goes Under Again

Publication Instance Details #806

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 Great Famine (Ireland)
Languages	English
Original Language	Irish
Original Poem	An Mhurúch Seo 'gainne fó Thoinn Arís
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 the poem highlights the conditions of the mermaid's life while she was alive. There is a sense of gender roles and expectations as the reader is told that this mermaid hardly ever spoke out in her entire life. Moreover, the only times she laughed were at the misfortune or foolishness of men. The speaker reflects on her unhappy life and her unhappy state now: she's in between two worlds, neither fish nor flesh, and still miserable. The Great Famine and Irish cultural loss is understood to be implicit in this sequence of poems.