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by Tomas Mac Siomoin (Introduction by), Tomas Mac Siomoin (Translator), Cathal Poirteir (Illustrator)
Poetry runs deep in Inishmore's Dire in family. "A Woman of Aran", a distinguished collection of poems by M ire ine N Dhire in, niece of M irt n Dire in, has just been published by Nuasc alta. The island's landscape is evoked by the charcoal drawings of Cathal P irt ir and the poems' original Irish is accompanied by Tom s Mac S om in's English translations of them. The poems of "A Woman of Aran" span a period stretching from the traditional Inishmore into which she was born through the years of her lengthy exile and, eventually, to her return to the island of her birth. She expresses in clear verse the emotional correlative of all these experiences, the unforgettable landscapes and seascapes of Inishmore being the constant background of her musings. M ire ine N Dhire in does not hesitate to engage with raw emotion, whether evoked by love, death or the crags of her beloved Aran, transmuting it into elegant free verse. She is always sharply conscious of the historical dimensions of her surroundings, whether in Inishmore or London. Many of her present-day fellow-Irish forget or ignore this dimension, but she has no compunction in expressing the indignation she feels at the historical wrong done to our people. "A Woman of Aran" entitles M ire ine N Dhire in to add her name to Inishmore's distinguished literary pantheon.