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Chapter 14 - The Poetry of Máire Mhac an tSaoi and the Indivisibility of Love
- By Patricia Coughlan
Edited by Ailbhe Darcy, Cardiff University, David Wheatley, University of Aberdeen
Book:

A History of Irish Women's Poetry

Published online:

11 June 2021

Print publication:

01 July 2021, pp 255-269
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Summary

The publication of Máire Mhac an tSaoi’s Margadh na Saoire in 1956 marked a revolutionary moment in Irish women’s poetry. Mhac an tSaoi came from the elite stock of the new state, and as the daughter of politician Sean McEntee experienced Irish history as very much a family affair. Her childhood experiences of the Kerry Gaeltacht were heavily formative, and her intimacy with folk songs and the dán grá tradition leave a strong influence on her early work. This work stood out strongly for its frank and radical treatment of sex, love, and the female sphere in Irish life. Her writing on themes of motherhood situates itself in the currents of debate over subsequent decades on reproductive rights, and paints a withering portrait of patriarchal control over women’s bodies. Subsequent poems tackle issues ranging from commemorations of the 1916 Rising to the Holocaust, and confirm her as one of the great modern Irish lyric poets.