Máirtín Ó Direáin: Rogha Dánta / Selected Poems

This volume provides a generous selection of poems by Máirtín Ó Direáin (1910-88), one of the leading Irish and Irish-language poets of the twentieth century. The poems span all of his collections, which were published between the early 1940s and late 1980s. They include his well known works as well as other poems which have been neglected or under-rated until now. The selection casts light on Ireland in the changing times of the mid- to late-twentieth century from the perspective of an Aran islander and Dublin dweller concerned with 'home' and also with a world of ideas and letters. Writing in a minoritized language that still has 'neart agus téagar' (strength and substance), Ó Direáin welcomed the 'foreign light' as long as it did not 'drown out' his own.