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[[Image:Yeats.jpg|right|thumbnail|A 1907 engraving of [[William Butler Yeats]], one of Ireland's best-known poets.]]
The history of '''Irish poetry''' includes the poetries of two languages, one in [[Irish language|Irish]] and the other in [[English language|English]]. The complex interplay between these two traditions, and between both of them and other poetries in English, has produced a body of work that is both rich in variety and difficult to categorise.
The earliest surviving poems in Irish date back to the 6th century and the first known poems in English from Ireland date from the 14th century. Although some cross-fertilization between the two language traditions has always happened, the final emergence of an English-language poetry that had absorbed themes and models from Irish did not appear until the 19th century. This culminated in the work of the poets of the [[Celtic Revival]] at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.
Towards the last quarter of the century, modern Irish poetry has tended to a wide range of diversity, from the poets of the Northern school to writers influenced by the [[Modernism|modernist]] tradition and those facing the new questions posed by an increasingly urban and cosmopolitan society.
==Early Irish poetry==
Poetry in Irish represents the oldest [[Vernacular literature|vernacular]] poetry in Europe. The earliest examples date from the 6th century, and are generally short [[lyrics]] on themes from [[religion]] or the world of nature. They were frequently written by their [[scribe]] authors in the margins of the [[illuminated manuscript]]s that they were copying.
Another source of early Irish poetry is the poems in the tales and sagas, such as the [[Táin Bó Cúailnge]]. Unlike many other European epic cycles, the Irish sagas were written in [[prose]], with [[Poetry|verse]] interpolations at moments of heightened tension or emotion. Although usually surviving in recensions dating from the later medieval period, these sagas and especially the poetic sections, are linguistically archaic, and afford the reader a glimpse of prechristian Ireland.
==Medieval/Early modern==
===Bardic poetry===
{{main|Bardic poetry}}
Irish bards formed a professional hereditary [[caste]] of highly trained, learned poets. The bards were steeped in the history and traditions of [[clan]] and country, as well as in the technical requirements of a verse technique that was [[Syllabic verse|syllabic]] and used [[assonance]], [[half rhyme]] and [[alliteration]]. As officials of the court of king or chieftain, they performed a number of official roles. They were [[Chronicle|chroniclers]] and [[Satire|satirists]] whose job it was to praise their employers and damn those who crossed them. It was believed that a well-aimed bardic satire, ''glam dicin'', could raise boils on the face of its target. However, much of their work would not strike the modern reader as being poetry at all, consisting as it does of extended genealogies and almost journalistic accounts of the deeds of their lords and ancestors.
===Metrical Dindshenchas===
The [[Metrical Dindshenchas]], or Lore of Places, is probably the major surviving monument of Irish bardic verse. It is a great [[onomastic]] anthology of naming legends of significant places in the Irish landscape and comprises about 176 poems in total. The earliest of these date from the 11th century, and were probably originally compiled on a provincial basis. As a national compilation, the Metrical Dindshenchas has come down to us in two different [[recensions]]. Knowledge of the real or putative history of local places formed an important part of the education of the elite in ancient Ireland, so the Dindshenchas was probably a kind of textbook in origin.
===The poems of Fionn===
Verse tales of Fionn and the Fianna, sometimes known as [[Ossian|Ossianic]] poetry, were extremely common in Ireland and Scotland throughout this period. They represent a move from earlier prose tales with verse interludes to stories told completely in verse. There is also a notable shift in tone, with the Fionn poems being much closer to the [[Romance (genre)|Romance]] tradition as opposed to the epic nature of the sagas. The Fionn poems form one of the key [[Celt]]ic sources for the [[King Arthur|Arthurian]] legends.
===The Kildare poems===
British Library Manuscript, Harley 913, is a group of poems written in Ireland in the early 14th century. They are usually called the [[County Kildare|Kildare]] poems because of their association with that county. Both poems and manuscript have strong [[Franciscan]] associations and are full of ideas from the wider [[Western Europe|Western European]] [[Christian]] tradition. They also represent the early stages of the second tradition of Irish poetry, that of poetry in the English language, as they were written in [[Middle English]].
===Spenser and Ireland===
[[Image:Unalion.jpg|thumb|[[Briton Rivière]]'s vision of a scene from [[Edmund Spencer]]'s poem [[The Faerie Queene]]]]
During the [[Elizabethan]] reconquest, two of the most significant English poets of the time saw service in the Irish colonies. Sir [[Walter Raleigh]] had little impact on the course of Irish literature, but the time spent in [[Munster]] by [[Edmund Spenser]] was to have serious consequences both for his own writings and for the future course of cultural development in Ireland.
Spenser's relationship with Ireland was somewhat ambiguous. On the one hand, an idealised Munster landscape forms the backdrop for much of the action for his masterpiece, ''[[The Faerie Queen]]''. On the other, he condemned Ireland and everything Irish as barbaric in his prose polemic ''[[A View of the Present State of Ireland]]''.
In ''A View'', he describes the Irish bards as being, <blockquote>"''soe far from instructinge younge men in Morrall discipline, that they themselves doe more deserve to be sharplie decyplined; for they seldome use to chuse unto themselves the doinges of good men, for the ornamentes of theire poems, but whomesoever they finde to bee most lycentious of lief, most bolde and lawles in his doinges, most daungerous and desperate in all partes of disobedience and rebellious disposicon, him they sett up and glorifie in their rymes, him they prayse to the people, and to younge men make an example to followe.''"</blockquote>
Given that the bards depended on aristocratic support to survive, and that this power and patronage was shifting towards the new English rulers, this thorough condemnation of their moral values may well have contributed to their demise as a caste.
==Gaelic poetry in the 17th century==
''For historical context see [[Early Modern Ireland 1536-1691]]''
The [[Battle of Kinsale]] in 1601 saw the defeat of [[Hugh O'Neill]], despite his alliance with the Spanish, and the ultimate victory in the [[Tudor re-conquest of Ireland|Elizabethan conquest of Ireland]] came with his surrender to crown authority in 1603. In consequence, the system of education and patronage that underpinned the professional bardic schools came under pressure, and the hereditary poets eventually engaged in a spat - the [[Contention of the bards]] - that marked the end of their ancient influence. During the early 17th century a new Gaelic poetry took root, one that sought inspiration in the margins of a dispossessed Irish-speaking society. The language of this poetry is today called [[Early Modern Irish language|Early Modern Irish]].
Although some 17th century poets continued to enjoy a degree of patronage, many, if not most, of them were part-time writers who also worked on the land, as teachers, and anywhere that they could earn their keep. Their poetry also changed, with a move away from the [[syllabic verse]] of the schools to [[accentual verse|accentual]] metres, reflecting the oral poetry of the bardic period. A good deal of the poetry of this period deals with political and historical themes that reflect the poets' sense of a world lost.
The poets adapted to the new English dominated order in several ways. Some of them continued to find patronage among the Gaelic Irish and [[Old English (Ireland)|Old English]] aristocracy. Some of the English landowners settled in Ireland after the [[Plantations of Ireland]] also patronised Irish poets, for instance George Carew and Roger Boyle. Other members of hereditary bardic families sent their sons to the new [[Irish College]]s that had been set up in Catholic Europe for the education of Irish Catholics, who were not permitted to found schools or Universities at home. Much of the Irish poetry of the seventeenth century was therefore composed by Catholic clerics and Irish society fell increasingly under [[Counter reformation]] influences.
By mid century, the subordination of the native Catholic upper classes in Ireland boiled over in the [[Irish Rebellion of 1641]]. Many Irish language poets wrote highly politicised poetry in support of the Irish Catholics organised in [[Confederate Ireland]]. For instance, the cleric poet Padraigin Haceid wrote, ''Eirigh mo Duiche le Dia'' ("Arise my Country with God") in support of the rebellion, which advised that
''Caithfidh fir Éireann uile''<br/>
''o haicme go haonduine...''<br/>
''gliec na timcheall no tuitim''<br/>
("All Irishmen from one person to all people must unite or fall")
Another of Haceid's poems ''Moscail do mhisneach a Banbha'' ("Gather your courage oh Ireland") in 1647 encouraged the Irish Catholic war effort in the [[Irish Confederate Wars]]. It expressed the opinion that Catholics should not tolerate [[Protestantism]] in Ireland,,
''Creideamh Chriost le creideamh Luiteir...''<br/>
''ladgadh gris i sneachta sud''<br/>
(The religion of Christ with the religion of [[Martin Luther|Luther]] is like ashes in the snow")
Following the defeat of the Irish Catholics in the [[Cromwellian conquest of Ireland]] 1649–53, and the destruction of the old Irish landed classes, many poets wrote mourning the fallen order or lamenting the destruction and repression of the Cromwellian conquest. The anonymous poem ''an Siogai Romanach'' went,
''Ag so an cogadh do chriochnaigh Éire''<br/>
''s do chuir na milte ag iarri dearca...''<br/>
''Do rith plaig is gorta in aonacht''<br/>
("This was the war that finished Ireland and put thousands begging, plague and famine ran together")
Another poem by Eamonn an Duna is a strange mixture of Irish and English,
''Le execution bhios suil an cheidir''<br/>
''costas buinte na chuine ag an ndeanach''<br/>
(The first thing a man expects is execution, the last that costs be awarded against him [in court]")<br/>
''Transport transplant, mo mheabhair ar Bhearla''<br/>
("Transport transplant, is what I remember of English")<br/>
''A [[rapparee|tory]], hack him, hang him, a rebel,''<br/>
''a rogue, a thief a priest, a papist''<br/>
After this period, the poets lost most of their patrons and protectors. In the subequent [[Williamite war in Ireland]] Catholic [[Jacobites]] tried to recover their position by supporting James II. Daibhi O Bruadair wrote many poems in praise of the Jacobite war effort and in particular of his hero, [[Patrick Sarsfield]]. The poets viewed the war as revenge against the Protestant settlers who had come to dominate Ireland, as the following poem extract makes clear,
'' "You Popish rogue", ni leomhaid a labhairt sinn''<br/>
''acht "Cromwellian dog" is focal faire againn''<br/>
''no " cia sud thall" go teann gan eagla''<br/>
''"Mise Tadhg" geadh teinn an t-agallamh''<br/>
("You Popish rogue" is not spoken, but "Cromwellian dog" is our watchword, "Who goes there" does not provoke fear, "I am Tadhg" [an Irishman] is the answer given") From Diarmuid Mac Cairthaigh, ''Cead buidhe re Dia'' ("A hundred victories with God").
The Jacobite's defeat in the War, and in particular [[James II of England|James II]]'s ignomiinous flight after the [[Battle of the Boyne]], gave rise to the following derisive verse,
''Seamus an chaca, a chaill Éireann,''<br/>
''lena leathbhrog ghallda is a leathbhrog Ghaelach''<br/>
("James the shit has lost Ireland, with his one shoe English and one shoe Irish")
The main poets of this period include [[Dáibhí Ó Bruadair]] (David O Bruadair) (1625?–1698), [[Piaras Feiritéar]] (1600?–1653) and [[Aogán Ó Rathaille]] (1675–1729). Ó Rathaille belongs as much to the 18th as the 17th century and his work, including the introduction of the ''[[aisling]]'' genre, marks something of a transition to a post [[Battle of the Boyne]] Ireland.
==The 18th century==
The 18th Century perhaps marks the point at which the two language traditions reach equal weight of importance. In Swift, the English tradition has its first writer of genius. Poetry in Irish now reflects the passing of the old Gaelic order and the patronage on which the poets depended for their livelihoods. This, then, is a period of transition writ large.
===Gaelic songs: the end of an order===
As the old native aristocracy suffered military and political defeat and, in many cases, exile, the world order that had supported the bardic poets disappeared. In these circumstances, it is hardly surprising that much Irish language poetry and song of this period laments these changes and the poet's plight.
However, being practical professionals, the poets were not above writing poems in praise of the new English lords in the hope of finding a continuity of court patronage. This was not generally a successful tactic, and Gaelic poets tended to be folk poets until the Gaelic revival that began towards the end of the 19th century. However, many of the poems and songs written during this period of apparent decline live on and are still recited and sung today.
===Cúirt An Mheán Oíche===
''Cúirt An Mheán Oíche'' (''The Midnight Court'') by [[Brian Merriman]] (1747–1805) is something of an oddity in 18th century Irish poetry in Irish. Merriman was a teacher of mathematics who lived and worked in the Munster counties of [[County Clare|Clare]] and [[County Limerick|Limerick]]. ''Cúirt An Mheán Oíche'', effectively his only poetic work, was written around 1780. The poem begins by using the conventions of the [[Aisling]], or vision poem, in which the poet is out walking when he has a vision of a woman from the other world. Typically, this woman is Ireland and the poem will lament her lot and/or call on her 'sons' to rebel against foreign tyranny.
In Merriman's hands, the convention is made to take an unusual twist. The woman drags the poet to the court of the fairy queen Aoibheal. There follows a court case in which a young woman calls on Aoibheal to take action against the young men of Ireland for their refusal to marry. She is answered by an old man who first laments the [[infidelity]] of his own young wife and the dissolute lifestyles of young women in general. He then calls on the queen to end the institution of [[marriage]] completely and to replace it with a system of [[free love]]. The young woman returns to mock the old man's inability to satisfy his young wife's needs and to call for an end to the celibacy among the clergy so as to widen the pool of prospective mates.
Finally, Aoibheal rules that all men must mate by the age of 21, that older men who fail to satisfy women must be punished, that sex must be applauded, not condemned, and that priests will soon be free to marry. To his dismay, the poet discovers that he is to be the first to suffer the consequences of this new law, but then awakens to find it was just a nightmare. In its frank treatment of sexuality and of [[clerical celibacy]], ''Cúirt An Mheán Oíche'' is a unique document in the history of Irish poetry in either language.
===Swift and Goldsmith===
[[Image:jonathan_swift.JPG|thumb|left|110px|Jonathan Swift]]
In [[Jonathan Swift]] (1667–1745), Irish literature in English found its first writer of real genius. Although best known for prose works like ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'' and ''[[A Tale of a Tub]]'', Swift was a poet of considerable talent. Technically close to his English contemporaries [[Alexander Pope|Pope]] and [[John Dryden|Dryden]], Swift's poetry evinces the same tone savage satire and horror of the human body and its functions that characterises much of his prose. Interestingly, Swift also published translations of poems from the Irish.<br/>
[[Image:GoldsmithOliver.jpg|thumb|110px|right|Oliver Goldsmith]]
[[Oliver Goldsmith]] (1730?–1774) started his literary career as a [[hack writer]] in London, writing on any subject that would pay enough to keep his creditors at bay. He came to belong to the circle of [[Samuel Johnson]], [[Edmund Burke]] and [[Sir Joshua Reynolds]]. His reputation depends mainly on a novel, ''[[The Vicar of Wakefield]]'', a play, ''[[She Stoops to Conquer]]'', and two long poems, ''The Traveller'' and ''The Deserted Village''. The last of these may be the first and best poem by an Irish poet in the English [[pastoral]] tradition. It has been variously interpreted as a lament for the death of Irish village life under British rule and a protest at the effects of agricultural reform on the English rural landscape.
==The 19th century==
During the course of the 19th century, political and economic factors resulted in the decline of the Irish language and the concurrent rise of English as the main language of Ireland. This fact is reflected in the poetry of the period. The end of old ways, a feature of the bardic laments of the eighteenth century, is also to be found in the early nineteenth century poem ''Caoine Cill Chais'' (''The Lament for Kilcash''). In this verse the anonymous poet laments that the castle of Cill Chais stands empty, its woods are cut down and the Catholic religion is gone underground (Flood and Flood 1999:85-93):
<i>Cad a dhéanfaimid feasta gan adhmad,<br/>
tá deireadh na gcoillte ar lár;<br/>
níl trácht ar Chill Chais ná a teaghlach,<br/>
is ní bainfear a cling go bráth;<br/>
an áit úd ina gcónaíodh an deighbhean<br/>
a fuair gradam is meidhir tar mhná,<br/>
bhíodh iarlaí ag tarraing tar toinn ann,<br/>
is an tAifreann binn á rá.</i><br/>
<i>(What shall we do from now on without timber?<br/>
The last of the woods is gone.<br/>
No more of Kilcash and its household<br/>
And its bells will not ring again.<br/>
The place where that great lady lived<br/>
Who received esteem and love above all others<br/>
Earls came from overseas to visit there<br/>
And Mass was sweetly read)</i><br/>
===Irishing English===
Paradoxically, as soon as English became the dominant language of Irish poetry, the poets began to mine the Irish-language heritage as a source of themes and techniques. Probably the first significant Irish poet to write in English in a recognisably Irish fashion was [[Thomas Moore]] (1779–1852). Moore's most enduring work, ''Irish Melodies'', was extremely popular with English audiences and the poet became the toast of London. The poems are, perhaps, somewhat overloaded with harps, bards and minstrels of Erin to suit modern tastes, but they did open up the possibility of a distinctive Irish English-language poetic tradition and served as an exemplar for Irish poets to come.
In 1842, [[Charles Gavan Duffy]] (1816–1903), [[Thomas Osborne Davis (Irish politician)|Thomas Davis]], (1814–1845), and [[John Blake Dillon]] (1816–1866) founded ''[[The Nation (Irish newspaper)|The Nation]]'' to agitate for reform of British rule. The group of politicians and writers associated with ''The Nation'' came to be known as the [[Young Irelanders]]. The magazine published verse, including work by Duffy and Davis, whose ''A Nation Once Again'' is still popular among Irish Nationalists. However, the most significant poet associated with ''The Nation'' was undoubtedly [[James Clarence Mangan]] (1803–1849). Mangan was a true ''[[poète maudit]]'', who threw himself into the role of bard, and even included translations of bardic poems in his publications.
Another poet who supported the Young Irelanders, although not directly connected with them, was [[Samuel Ferguson]] (1810–1886). Ferguson once wrote: 'my ambition (is) to raise the native elements of Irish history to a dignified level.' To this end, he wrote many verse retellings of the Old Irish sagas. He also wrote a moving elegy to Thomas Davis.
[[William Allingham]] (1824–1889) was an important figure in the [[Pre-Raphaelite]] movement. His ''Day and Night Songs'' was illustrated by [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]] and [[Millais]].
===Folk songs and poems===
During the 19th century, poetry in Irish became essentially a folk art. One of the few well-known figures from this period was [[Antoine Ó Raifteiri|Antoine Ó Raifteiri (Anthony Raftery)]] (1784–1835), who is known as the last of the wandering bards. His ''Mise Raifteiri an file'' is still learned by heart in some Irish schools.
In addition, this was one of the great periods for the composition of folk songs in both languages, and the majority of the traditional singer's repertoire is typically made up of 19th century songs.
===The Celtic revival===
Probably the most significant poetic movement of the second half of the 19th century was French [[Symbolism]]. This movement inevitably influenced Irish writers, not least [[Oscar Wilde]] (1845–1900). Although Wilde is best known for his plays, fiction, and ''[[The Ballad of Reading Gaol]]'', he also wrote poetry in a symbolist vein and was the first Irish writer to experiment with [[prose poetry]]. However, the overtly cosmopolitan Wilde was not to have much influence on the future course of Irish writing.
[[W. B. Yeats]] (1865–1939) was much more influential in the long run. Yeats, too, was influenced by his French contemporaries but consciously focused on an identifiably Irish content. As such, he was responsible for the establishment of the literary movement known as the [[Celtic Revival]]. He won the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1923.
Apart from Yeats, much of the impetus for the Celtic Revival came from the work of scholarly translators who were aiding in the discovery of both the ancient sagas and Ossianic poetry and the more recent folk song tradition in Irish. One of the most significant of these was [[Douglas Hyde]] (1860–1949), later the first [[President of Ireland]], whose ''[[Love Songs of Connacht]]'' was widely admired.
==The 20th century==
===Yeats and modernism===
In the 1910s, Yeats became acquainted with the work of [[James Joyce]], and worked closely with [[Ezra Pound]], who served as his personal secretary for a time. Through Pound, Yeats also became familiar with the work of a range of prominent [[Modernist poetry|modernist]] poets. He undoubtedly learned from these contacts, and from his [[1916 in poetry|1916]] book ''[[Responsibilities and Other Poems]]'' onwards his work, while not entirely meriting the label modernist, became much more hard-edged than it had been.
===The 1916 poets===
Another group of early 20th century Irish poets worth noting are those associated with the [[Easter Rising]] of 1916. Three of the Republican leadership, [[Padraig Pearse]] (1879–1916), [[Joseph Mary Plunkett]] (1879–1916) and [[Thomas MacDonagh]] (1878–1916), were noted poets. Although much of the verse written by them is predictably [[Catholic]] and [[Nationalist]] in outlook, they were competent writers and their work is of considerable historical interest. Pearse, in particular, shows the influence of his contact with the work of [[Walt Whitman]].
===After Yeats: Clarke, Higgins, Colum===
However, it was to be Yeats' earlier Celtic mode that was to be most influential. Amongst the most prominent followers of the early Yeats were [[Padric Colum]] (1881–1972), [[F. R. Higgins]] (1896–1941), and [[Austin Clarke (poet)|Austin Clarke]] (1896–1974). In the 1950s, Clarke, returning to poetry after a long absence, turned to a much more personal style and wrote many satires on Irish society and religious practices.
===Irish Modernism ===
In fact, Irish poetic Modernism took its lead not from Yeats but from Joyce. The 1930s saw the emergence of a generation of writers who engaged in experimental writing as a matter of course. The best known of these is [[Samuel Beckett]] (1906–1989), who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969. Beckett's poetry, while not inconsiderable, is not what he is best known for. The most significant of the second generation Modernist Irish poets who first published in the 1920s and 1930s include [[Brian Coffey]] (1905–1995), [[Denis Devlin]] (1908–1959), [[Thomas MacGreevy]] (1893–1967), [[Blanaid Salkeld]] (1880–1959), and [[Mary Devenport O'Neill]] (1879–1967). Coffey's two late long poems ''Advent'' and ''Death of Hektor''. are widely held to be the most important works in the canon of Irish poetic Modernism.
===Poetry in [[Eamon de Valera|De Valera]]'s Ireland===
While Yeats and his followers wrote about an essentially aristocratic Gaelic Ireland, the reality was that the actual [[Irish Free State]] of the 1930s and 1940s was a society of small farmers and shopkeepers. Inevitably, a generation of poets who rebelled against the example of Yeats, but who were not Modernist by inclination, emerged from this environment. [[Patrick Kavanagh]] (1904–1967), who came from a small farm, wrote about the narrowness and frustrations of rural life. [[John Harold Hewitt|John Hewitt]] (1907–1987), whom many consider to be the founding father of [[Northern Ireland|Northern Irish]] poetry, also came from a rural background but lived in Belfast and was amongst the first Irish poets to write of the sense of alienation that many at this time felt from both their original rural and new urban homes. [[Louis MacNeice]] (1907–1963), another Northern Irish poet, was associated with the left-wing politics of [[Michael Roberts]]'s anthology ''[[Michael Roberts#Poets in New Signatures|New Signatures]]'' but was much less political a poet than [[W. H. Auden]] or [[Stephen Spender]], for example. MacNeice's poetry was informed by his immediate interests and surroundings and is more social than political. In the South, the Republic of Ireland, a post-modernist generation of poets and writers emerged from the late 1950s onwards. Prominent among these writers were the poets Antony Cronin, Pearse Hutchinson, John Jordan, Thomas Kinsella and John Montague, most of whom were based in Dublin in the 1960s and 1970s. In Dublin a number of new literary magazines were founded in the 1960s; ''Poetry Ireland'', ''Arena'', ''The Lace Curtain'', and in the 1970s, ''Cyphers''.
===Poetry in Irish===
With the foundation of the Irish Free State it became official government policy to promote and protect the Irish language. Although not particularly successful, this policy did help bring about a revival in Irish-language literature. Specifically, the establishment in 1926 of ''An Gúm'' ("The Project"), a Government sponsored publisher, created an outlet both for original works in Irish and for translations into the language.
Since then, a number of Irish-language poets have come to prominence. These include [[Máirtín Ó Direáin]] (1910–1988), [[Seán Ó Ríordáin]] (1916–1977), [[Máire Mhac an tSaoi]] (born 1922), [[Gabriel Rosenstock]] (born 1949), and [[Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill]] (born 1952). While all these poets are influenced by the Irish poetic tradition, they have also shown the ability to assimilate influences from poetries in other languages.
===The Northern School===
The Northern Irish poets have already been mentioned in connection with John Hewitt. Of course, there were others of some importance too, including Robert Greacen (1920- ), who along Valentin Iremonger edited an important anthology, ''Contemporary Irish Poetry'' in 1949. Greacen was born in Derry, lived in Belfast in his youth and then in London during the 1950s, 60s and 70s. He won the Irish Times Prize for Poetry in 1995 for his ''Collected Poems'', after he returned to live in Dublin when he was elected a menber of ''Aosdana''. Other poets of note from this time include Roy McFadden (1921–1999), a friend for many years of Greacen. Another Northern poet of note is Padraic Fiacc (1924- ), who was born in Belfast, but lived in America during his youth.
In the 1960s, and coincident with the rise of [[the Troubles]] in the province, a number of [[Ulster]] poets began to receive critical and public notice. Prominent amongst these were [[Michael Longley]] (born 1939), [[Derek Mahon]] (born 1941), [[Seamus Heaney]] (born 1939), and [[Paul Muldoon]] (born 1951).
Heaney is probably the best-known of these poets. He won the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1995, and has served as Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory and Emerson Poet in Residence at [[Harvard University|Harvard]], and as Professor of Poetry at [[University of Oxford|Oxford]].
Derek Mahon was born in Belfast and worked as a journalist, editor, and screenwriter while publishing his first books. His slim output should not obscure the high quality of his work, which is influenced by modernist writers such as [[Samuel Beckett]].
Muldoon has been Howard G. B. Clark '21 Professor in the Humanities at [[Princeton University]]. In 1999 he was also elected Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford.
Some critics find that these poets share some formal traits (including an interest in traditional poetic forms) as well as a willingness to engage with the difficult political situation in Northern Ireland. Others (such as the Dublin poet [[Thomas Kinsella]]) have found the whole idea of a Northern school to be more hype than reality.
===Experiment===
In the late 1960s, two young Irish poets, [[Michael Smith (poet)|Michael Smith]] (born 1942) and [[Trevor Joyce]] (born 1947) founded the [[New Writers Press]] publishing house and a journal called ''[[The Lace Curtain]]''. Partly this was to publish their own work and that of some like-minded friends, and partly it was to promote the work of neglected Irish modernists like Coffey and Devlin. Both Joyce and Smith have published considerable bodies of poetry in their own right.
Among the other poets published by the New Writers Press were [[Geoffrey Squires]] (born 1942), whose early work was influenced by [[Charles Olson]], and [[Augustus Young]] (born 1943), who admired Pound and who has translated older Irish poetry, as well as work from Latin America and poems by [[Bertolt Brecht]].
Younger poets who write what might be called experimental poetry include [[Maurice Scully]] (born 1952), and [[Randolph Healy]] (born 1956).
===Outsiders===
In addition to these two loose groupings, a number of prominent Irish poets of the second half of the 20th century could be described as outsiders. These include [[Thomas Kinsella]] (born 1928), whose early work was influenced by Auden. Kinsella's later work exhibits the influence of Pound in its looser metrical structure and use of [[imagery]] but is deeply personal in manner and matter. He is Professor of English at Temple University, Philadelphia. Kinsella also edited the poetry of Austin Clarke, who, in his later work at least, could also be included with the outsiders in Irish poetry.
[[Michael Hartnett]] (1941–1999) was unusual amongst Irish poets in that he was equally fluent in both Irish and English. As well as original work in both languages, including haiku in English, he published translations in English of bardic poetry and of the ''[[Tao Te Ching]]''.
[[John Jordan]] (1930–1988) was a poet, short story writer, literary critic and academic. He was the first Editor of the revived ''Poetry Ireland'' magazine in the 1960s and also the founding editor of ''Poetry Ireland Review'' in the early 1980s. As editor of the 1960s ''Poetry Ireland'' journal he published the young Seamus Heaney and first published work by Paul Durcan and Michael Hartnett. He was a Lecturer in English at University College Dublin and a Professor of English at the Memorial University of Newfoundland at St. John's. He was a noted critic who wrote regularly for the magazine ''Hibernia'' and for academic journals such as ''University Review'', ''Irish University Review'', and ''Studies''. He died in Cardiff, Wales, in 1988. His Collected Works have been edited by his Literary Executor, Hugh McFadden, also a poet. The '''Collected Poems''' were published posthumously by Dedalus Press in 1991; The '''Collected Stories''' by Poolbeg Press, in 1991; and the Selected Prose, '''Crystal Clear''', was published by Lilliput Press, Dublin, in 2006.
[[Eoghan Ó Tuairisc]] (Eugene Watters) (1919–1982) was another bilingual poet. His ''The Weekend of Dermot and Grace'' (1964) is one of the most interesting Irish long poems of the second half of the 20th century and one of the few examples of the application of the lessons of [[T. S. Eliot]]'s ''[[The Waste Land]]'' in any work by an Irish poet.
[[Patrick Galvin]] (born 1927) worked mainly with the ballad tradition and his poetry displays his left-wing politics. He has also written several volumes of memoirs, one of which, ''[[Song for a Raggy Boy]]'', has been made into a film.
[[Cathal Ó Searcaigh]] (born 1956) writes exclusively in Irish. Many of his poems are candidly [[homoeroticism|homoerotic]] in their subject matter. He has also written plays, such as ''[[Oíche Ghealaí]]'' ("Moonlit Night"), whose [[homosexuality|homosexual]] content created controversy when it opened in [[Letterkenny]] in 2001.[http://www.askaboutireland.ie/show_narrative_page.do?page_id=509&version=text_only]
===Women poets===
The second half of the century also saw the emergence of a number of women poets of note. Two of the most successful of these are [[Eavan Boland]] (born 1944) and [[Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin]] (born 1942). Boland has written widely on specifically feminist themes and on the difficulties faced by women poets in a male-dominated literary world. She is professor of English at [[Stanford University]]. Ní Chuilleanáin's poetry reflects an interest in Celtic spirituality. She is a Fellow of [[Trinity College Dublin]].
==Irish poetry now==
As can be seen, there has been a tendency for Irish poets to become academics and teachers of poetry. In recent years, and thanks partly to the activities of the [[Arts Council of Ireland|Arts Council]] and of [[Poetry Ireland]], this tendency has widened out to include a network of [[writers' workshops]] spread around the country with funding provided to employ writers to facilitate. These bodies also support and fund poetry readings. In addition, most local authorities and many schools, prisons, universities, and other institutions employ [[writer-in-residence|writers-in-residence]].
These opportunities for employment have tended to lead to the professionalisation of poetry in Ireland and this is probably most clearly demonstrated by the establishment in recent years of [[Master's degree|M.A.]] courses in [[Creative Writing]] at [[National University of Ireland, Galway]], and [[Trinity College Dublin]]. The possible implications of these developments for the future of poetry in Ireland remain to be seen.
Among the significant Irish poets to have emerged in recent years are [[Pat Boran]], Patrick Chapman, Vona Groarke, John Hughes, Justin Quinn, Hugh McFadden, Paula Meehan, Sinead Morrissey, Conor O'Callaghan and [[Caitriona O'Reilly]].
Pat Boran is the Director of the poetry publishing house in Dublin, Dedalus Press.
Hugh McFadden (1942- ) is the literary executor of the writer John Jordan.
==See also==
*[[Irish literature]]
*[[Irish fiction]]
*[[Irish theatre]]
*[[List of Irish poets]]
*[[List of national poetries]]
==References==
*[http://www.ucc.ie/celt/ Early poetry in Irish and English]
*[http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poet318.html Swift]
*[http://www.showhouse.com/prologue.html Cuirt an Mheán Oíche]
*[http://www.showhouse.com/prologue.html Cuirt an Mheán Oíche]
*[http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem875.html Goldsmith poems]
*[http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/golds02.html More Goldsmith poems]
*[http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/Poetry/Mangan.html Mangan]
*[http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poet233.html Moore]
*[http://www.poetry-archive.com/f/ferguson_samuel.html Ferguson]
*[http://www.ucc.ie/celt/wpoems.html Wilde]
*[http://www.josephmaryplunkett.com Plunkett]
*[http://www.artscouncil.ie The Arts Council]
*[http://www.poetryireland.ie Poetry Ireland]
*[http://www.irishwriters-online.com/index.html General biographical information]
==Sources==
[http://www.oldirishpoems.com Old Irish Poems]
(For 17th century poems)
*Nicholas Canny, Making Ireland British
*John Flood & Phil Flood, ''Kilcash:1190-1801'' (Dublin, Geography Publications 1999)
*Padraig Lenihan, Confederate Catholics at War
*Eamonn o Cairdha, Ireland and the Jacobite Cause - A fatal attachment
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