A history of Irish women’s poetry

Abstract

A History of Irish Women’s Poetry is an ambitious collection of essays that re-evaluate and recontextualise poetry written by women in Ireland, from Medieval times to the contemporary. Though covering extensive grounds, the editors emphasise from the beginning the “incom-pleteness” (8) of their volume, which highlights the importance of the contributors’ work for a sustainable recovery of these women poets’ voices. Composed of two complementary introductions and twenty-four chapters, the volume illustrates these women poets’ engagement with the concerns of their times, but also the multiple approaches and techniques they used to address a broad range of topics. Chronologically organised, the collection gives the sense of a narrative, a continuity of networks and connections between women poets from different generations, and makes a solid case that there were, in fact, foremothers, despite Eavan Boland’s now much nuanced statement. A History of Irish Women’s Poetry opens with the editors’ general introduction where Ailbhe Darcy and David Wheatley expose their framework, both historical and theoretical. The editors’ honest acknowledgement that despite the breadth of material present here gaps are still left, and their welcome emphasis on the collaborative nature of their volume establish solid foundations for future research, and opens the ground to Anne Fogarty’s second introduction. Having worked extensively on Irish women’s poetry, Fogarty explores the history of publication and reception of Irish women poets. Pointing out that being a woman poet has often been a “disabling criterion” (26), Fogarty assesses the responsibility of (mostly male) poetry anthol-ogists who repeatedly excluded many female voices. The evidence brought forth in this very comprehensive introduction powerfully argue for a “pluralist vision that accords a non-judgemental space to a variety of Irish women poets” (33), which is exactly where this volume anchors itself.