Life
1942- ; dg. Eilís Dillon and Prof. Chuilleanáin, Prof. of
Irish, UCC; ed. UCC, proceeding on a scholarship to Oxford; B.Litt in
Renaissance English (Oxon.); TCD English lecturer in medieval and renaissance
literature from 1966; Irish Times award for poetry, 1966; poetry
collections incl. Acts and Monuments (1972), winning Patrick Kavanagh
award; Odysseus Meets the Ghosts of the Women (1973), Site of
Ambush (1975), for the first time explicitly identifying the central
figure as female; The Second Voyage (1977); Selected Poems
(1978); also The Rose Geranium (1981) and The Magdalene Sermons
(1991); ed. Irish Women: Image and Achievement (1985), authoritative
work, dealing in Irish mythology and female archetypes; joint ed. lit.
mag. Cyphers, 1975- ; m. Macdara Woods; winner of O’Shaughnessy
Award, 1992; forthright critic of Field Day Anthology’s ‘false
inclusiveness’ (in Cyphers, 35); declined inclusion in Penguin
anthology; her poetry encompasses contemporary and historical, physical
and spiritual dimensions and is marked by a wide range of references and
symbols, expressed in distinct images; appt. Dean of Faculty of Arts (Letters)
at TCD, 2001. DIW DIL FDA OCIL
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Works
Poetry, Acts and Monuments (Oldcastle: Gallery Press 1972 [DIW
1973]); Site of Ambush (Oldcastle: Gallery Press 1975); The
Second Voyage (Oldcastle: Gallery Press 1977; NC: Wake Forest UP 1977),
and Do., 2nd edn. (Gallery 1986); The Rose Geranium (Oldcastle:
Gallery Press 1981); The Magdalene Sermons and Other Poems (1991);
The Brazen Serpent (Oldcastle: Gallery Press 1994; NC: Wake Forest
1995), 47pp.
Prose, ed. Irish Women: Image and Achievement, Women in Irish Culture from the Earliest Times (Dublin: Arlen House 1985) [incl. her own essay, ‘Women as Writers: Danta Grá to Maria Edgeworth’, pp.111-26, and Nuala O’Faolain, ‘Irish Women and Writing in Modern Ireland’, cp.129]; also ‘Gaelic Ireland Rediscovered, Courtly and Country Poetry’, in Seán Lucy, Irish Poets in English (Mercier 1972), pp.44-59; with Joseph Pheifer, Noble and Joyous Histories (IAP 1993), 292pp.; ‘Borderlands of Irish Poetry’, in Elmer Andrews, ed., Contemporary Irish Poetry: A Collection of Critical Essays (Macmillan 1996), pp.25-40.
Reviews incl. review of Heroic Styles: Tim Tradition of an Idea by Seamus Deane in Cyphers, 21 (1984), pp.50-52 and a review of Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, gen. ed. Seamus Deane (1991), Vols. I-III, in Cyphers, 35 (1992), p.52.
Miscellaneous, Cork, with Brian [var. Fintan] Lalor [ill.] (Meath: Gallery 1977); Interview with Kevin Ray and ‘New Poems’ in Éire-Ireland, XXX, 4 (Winter 1996), pp.62-73; 74-77; also translations in Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, The Pharoah’s Daughter (Oldcastle: Gallery Press 1990), pp.71, 121 & 141; ‘Poetry in Translation’, in Irish Translators’ Association Newsletter, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1987), cp.5; ed., The Wilde Legacy (Dublin: Four Courts Press 2003), 172pp.; ‘Acts and Monuments of an Unelected Nation: The Cailleach Writes About the Renaissance’, in Southern Review, 31, 3 (1995), cp.572.
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Criticism
Patricia Boyle Haberstroh, ‘A Conversation with Eiléan Ní
Chuillleanáin’, in Four Quarters, 2, 3 (!989), cp.19.
Edna Longley, in Irish Review 8 (Spring 1990).
Sheila C. Conboy, “‘What you have seen is beyond speech’”: Female Journeys in the Poetry of Eavan Boland and Eilean Ní Chuilleanáin’, in Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, 16, 1 (July 1990), pp.65-72.
Patricia Boyle Haberstroh, ‘An Interview with Eileán Ní Chuilleanáin’, in Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, 20, 2 (Dec. 1994), pp.63-74.
Maurice Harmon, ‘Writing for the Gallery’, review of The Brazen Serpent, in Books Ireland (Oct. 1995), p.249.
Patricia Boyle Haberstroh, Women Creating Women: Contemporary Irish Women Poets (Syracuse UP 1996).
Kevin Ray, ‘Interview with Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin’, Eire-Ireland, 31, 1&2 (Spring/Summer 1999), pp.62-73.
Alexander G. Gonzalez, ed., Contemporary Irish Women Poets: Some Male Perspectives (Westport/London: Greenwood 1999), 184pp.
Guinn Batten, ‘Boland, McGuckian, Ní Chuilleanáin and the Body of the Nation’, in Matthew Campbell, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Contemporary Irish Poetry (Cambridge UP 2003), pp.169-88.
Irene Gilsenan Nordin, ‘The Weight of Wrods: An Interview with Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin’, in Canadian Journal of Irish Studies/Revue canadienne d’études irlandaises, Vol. 28, No.2/Vol. 29 No.1 (Fall 2002/Spring 2003), p.74-83.
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Notes
Brendan Kennelly, Penguin Book of Irish Verse (Harmondsworth
1970), incls. poems.
James Simmons, ed., Ten Irish Poets (Manchester: Carcanet 1974), contains "Early Recollections"; "Death and Engines"; "Evidence"; "The Apparition"; "The Second Voyage"; "A Poem on Change"; "Ferryboat"; "Letter to Pearse Hutchinson"; "Swineherd".
Peter Fallon & Seán Golden, eds., Soft Day: A Miscellany of Contemporary Irish Writing (Dublin Wolfhound; Notre Dame UP 1980), contains Swineherd"; "Death and Engines"; "The Lady’s Tower"; "Odysseus Meets the Ghosts of the Women"; "A Gentleman’s Bedroom".
Seamus Deane, gen., ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 3, selects poems from from Acts and Monuments; Site of Ambush; The Second Voyage; 1434 [no COMM.]
Translations: ‘His [the translator’s] essential experise is as necessary for the higher virtues of civilised man - broadmindedness, enterprise, assurance - as for the manin luxury of civilised life - uninterrupted human communication, and the endless satisfaction of the human curiosity. Translaor and plumber, though, both capitalise on basic needs of man, whether civilised or not, and thus inevitably demosntrate the unity of epoples. Languages, histories and traditions, which seem ipervious to one another, are revealed as modes of communication.’ (‘Poetry in Translation’, Irish Translators’ Association Newsletter, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1987), cp.5; cited in Michael Cronin, Translating Ireland: Translations, Languages, Cultures, Cork UP 1996, p.185.)
Anthologies: ‘Every anthology published in my lifetime has been worthless as an ccount of contemporary literature [...] because of the form’s spurious claim to completeness.’ (Cited in John Kerrigan, review of Patrick Crotty, ed., Modern Irish Poetry, in Irish Review, No. 20, Winter/Spring 1997, p.131).
‘Degendering the hero, she challenges traditional concepts of heroism
and demonstrates the value of simple actions and the human scale. While
her numerous images of water, travellers, and pilgrims reminds us of the
deepest human fears and needs, images also catalogue the importance of
the ordinary and the domestic … [as] new metaphors for human experiences
and emotions.’ (Patricia Boyle Haberstroh, Women Creating Women:
Contemporary Irish Women Poets, Syracuse UP 1996, p.120; cited by
Joyce C. East [review of same], in Irish Literary Supplement, Fall
1996, p.12.)
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)