Life
author of Struth Teangacha/Stream of Tongues (2002), a Belfast
collection of poetry combining influence and style of Ramblin' Jack Eliot,
Leonard Cohen and Billie Holiday, acc. publisher.
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Works
Struth Teangacha/Stream of Tongues, intro. by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill
(Cló Iar-Chonnachta 2002) [with CD].
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Commentary
Fred Johnston, review of Sruth Teangacha/Stream
of Tongues, in Books Ireland (Oct. 2002), p.247; quotes introduction
by Nuala Ní Dhomnhnaill: ‘the language he uses is a natural
extension of the fragmented, shrapnel-strewn quality of life as he has
lived it; a creole or macaronic language’, and remarks: ‘Ní
Dhomnhnaill sees Mac Lochlainn as a sort of exotic cultural cross-breed
singing from the bayous of Belfast. She does not appear to understand,
and certainly does not mention, that Irish - or even Creole - has never
been native to Belfast and that it has been resurrected there [...] more
as a political than a cultural tool in the past thirty-odd years.’
Further, ‘Ní Dhomnhnaill compounds further this fracture of
understanding by remarking that ‘‘he writes in a language which
is not fashionable or profitable’, when in fact Irish has never been
more so each way, and the opportunities for publication and recognition
have never been more numerous [...; &c.]’ Johnston calls her
contribution this ‘Real McCoy introduction’ but adds in parenthesis
that he does not mean to accuse MacLochlainn of a political motive in
publishing in Irish.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)