MÁIRE MHAC an tSaoi, one of the most significant Irish poets of the 20th century, and the most important living poet working as Gaeilge, will be celebrated in NUI Galway.
NUIG will host The Miracle of the Parish: Máire Mhac an tSaoi Symposium on Wednesday May 23 from 9am in the university’s Moore Institute.
Along with Máirtín Ó Direáin and Seán Ó Ríordáin, Máire Mhac an tSaoi revolutionised the practice of poetry in Irish in the 1940s and 1950s and paved the way for a new generation of women poets, working as Gaeilge agus as Bearla in the 1970s and 1980s. Máire Mhac an tSaoi also gave voice to the intimate and subversive aspects of women’s experience in poems that challenged the moral orthodoxies of the time.
Speakers at the symposium include Micheál MacCraith, Margaret Mac Curtain, Máire Ní Annracháin, Máirín NicEoin, Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith, Ríóna Ní Fhrighil, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, and Patricia Coughlan. The event will be recorded by RTÉ radio for broadcast later in the year.
“This is the first event dedicated entirely to her work and includes contributions from some of the finest scholars and critics of poetry in Irish,” said Louis de Paor, director of the Centre for Irish Studies. “We are delighted to recognise her unique contribution to Irish writing.”
Ms Mhac an tSaoi was appointed Honorary Professor of Irish Studies at NUIG in 2004 while her uncle Monsignor Pádraig de Brún, served with such distinction as president. She published her autobiography The Same Age as the State in 2003 while a bilingual selection of her poems An Paróiste Míorúilteach/The Miraculous Parish came out late last year.
Admission to all sessions is free and the public is invited to attend. For more information contact Samantha Williams at [email protected] or 091 - 492051.
